Jakarta – Thousands of people held a Defend Palestine action in front of the United States Embassy on Jalan Medan Merdeka Selatan in Central Jakarta on Sunday morning, December 17.
The majority of the protesters who attended brought Palestine and Indonesian flags. They also wore headbands with the writing "Save Palestine".
They also brought various kinds of posters expressing support for Palestine. "Stop genocide. Stand with Palestine", read one of the posters. "Boycott Israel", read another.
From the stage, a speaker repeatedly conveyed a call for support and invited the protesters to pray and to invoke God's blessing.
"Palestine, Palestine, freedom, freedom", shouted the speaker.
The protesters also condemned the actions of the US in vetoing a United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolution.
'[We] condemn the veto by the United States against the ceasefire resolution that was agreed to by the majority of UN members", said one of the speakers in reading out a statement on Sunday.
The demonstrators also strongly protested the US which is seen as supporting the war crimes being committed by Israel. On these grounds, the protesters demanded that the Indonesian government withdraw its US ambassador.
"[We] ask the government to withdraw Indonesia's ambassador to America, as a form of protest against the United States' support for Israel", said the speaker.
As of publishing this article, the demonstration at the US Embassy was still continuing with more protesters continuing to arrive.
The US is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and has the right of veto. Since Israel's aggression in Gaza began on October 7, the US has twice vetoed UN Security Council resolutions on Gaza.
Israel launched the aggression in Palestine and declared war on Hamas on October 7. During the operation, they have attacked civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire on November 24 that was extended twice until it ended on November 30. Israel then launched a massive phase two attack on Gaza.
Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 18,600 people, the majority being women and children. The total number of deaths is almost two times the number of people killed in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has cause the death of 10,000 people.
The large number of civilian casualties is because the Zionist military has been attacking indiscriminately. A number of schools, hospitals, places of worship and refugee camps have been targeted in the Israeli bombardments. (yoa/bac)
[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski based on two articles by CNN Indonesia on December 17. The original title of the lead article was "Ribuan Massa Gelar Aksi Bela Palestina di Depan Kedubes AS".]
