Jakarta (Antara Bali)- At least hundreds of thousands of Indonesians held a rally, which is claimed to be the biggest ever, in support of Palestine and to reject the US Administration's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the National Monument (Monas) area, here, Sunday.
The rally was attended by many Muslim mass organizations, a number of prominent figures such as Ma'ruf Amin, chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Zulkifli Hasan, chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly, former sports and youth affairs minister Adhyaksa Dault, Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, and prominent ulemas like Bachtiar Nasir, AA Gymnastiar and Zaitun Rasmin.
Being centered in the Monas area, the crowd has spilled over to Thamrin and Sudirman avenues.
The rally started at 6 a.m., but many protesters came at 3 a.m. local time and performed Fajr (Dawn) Prayer in Istiqlal Grand Mosque, which is located near Monas.
After listening to speeches from ulemas and prominent figures, the protesters will move to the US embassy which is located across the Monas.
According to Bachtiar Nasir, a petition against President Donald Trump's decision on Jerusalem will be presented to the US ambassador to Indonesia at the end of the rally.
The Jakarta Police said that some 20 thousand police officers were deployed to guard the pro-Palestine rally.
So far, all Muslim-majority and Arab countries have expressed opposition to the Trump's move. Indonesia and its immediate neighbor, Malaysia, have expressed strong condemnation of the US decision.
Leaders of 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), including President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), gathered in Istanbul, Turkey, on Dec 13, and voiced their united stance against the Trump's move.
In the Istanbul Declaration on "Freedom for al-Quds," they have rejected and condemned Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and have called on the world to recognize east Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi had initiated a visit to the European Union (EU) Headquarters in Brussels to gather EU's support for Palestine and conveyed the outcomes of the OIC Extraordinary Summit. (WDY)
