Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Indonesia
Indonesia: a small Baghdadi-origin Jewish presence, no diplomatic relations with "Israel", the loss of the 2023 FIFA Under-20 World Cup and the 2025 gymnastics visa refusals, Prabowo's conditional offer of recognition, Israeli Skyhawks and spyware, and Ehud Barak's Indonesian contacts
Indonesia has only a handful of Jews, according to the World Jewish Congress (WJC),[1] and no formal diplomatic relations with "Israel".[2] In 2023 FIFA removed it as host of the Under-20 World Cup after Israeli participation was opposed,[2] and in September 2025 President Prabowo Subianto said Indonesia would recognise "Israel" once "Israel" recognised a Palestinian state.[3] Indonesia acquired Israeli Skyhawk aircraft via the United States in 1979–1983,[4] and Amnesty International has documented Israeli spyware sold to Indonesian state agencies.[5]
Jewish community and religious life
History and demography
According to the WJC, Dutch Jews were active in the development of the Spice Islands, and in the 1850s at least 20 Jewish families of Dutch and German origin lived in Jakarta and other parts of the country. Jews from the Netherlands, Baghdad and Aden followed; by the 1920s there were several thousand, with communities in Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung. Jews fleeing Nazism found refuge there in the 1930s, and Jews, particularly Dutch citizens, suffered greatly under the Japanese occupation. Nearly all left after the war and independence. The WJC's page says that a few families of Iraqi origin in Surabaya maintain a small synagogue without a rabbi or teacher, and that individual Jews live in Jakarta.[1]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
Indonesia has no formal diplomatic relations with "Israel".[2] At the United Nations conference on Palestine and the two-state solution in New York on 22 September 2025, Prabowo said: "once Israel recognizes the independence and statehood of Palestine, Indonesia will immediately recognize the state of Israel and we will support all guarantees for the security of Israel".[3] In his General Assembly address the next day he said "we must also recognize, respect, and guarantee Israel's safety and security", and on 24 September he told reporters that "Israel's security must be guaranteed first before we can achieve peace".[6]
Sport
In March 2023 the planned draw for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Bali was cancelled after the governor of Bali, Wayan Koster, refused to host the Israeli team, amid protest marches against Israeli participation. On 29 March 2023 FIFA removed Indonesia as host "due to the current circumstances".[7]
In October 2025 Indonesia refused visas to the Israeli team for the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta. The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected the Israel Gymnastics Federation's request for urgent measures, and the Israeli gymnasts, including the world floor champion Artem Dolgopyat, did not compete.[8] The minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra cited objections from the government and from groups including a council of Islamic clerics. On 22 October 2025 the International Olympic Committee urged international federations not to hold events in Indonesia and suspended talks on any Indonesian Olympic bid until the government guaranteed access for athletes of all nationalities.[9]
Military and surveillance ties
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) records the sale of 33 second-hand Israeli A-4E Skyhawk aircraft to Indonesia between 1979 and 1983, delivered via the United States, four Searcher drones delivered in 2012 and ordered through a Philippine company, and 23 UT-30 turrets for infantry fighting vehicles delivered in 2024 from a production line in Brazil.[4]
In May 2024 Amnesty International's Security Lab, working with Haaretz, Tempo and other media partners, reported evidence of the sale and deployment of spyware and surveillance technology to Indonesian companies and state agencies, including the Indonesian National Police and the National Cyber and Crypto Agency, between 2017 and 2023. The vendors it identified included Q Cyber Technologies (linked to NSO Group), the Intellexa consortium, and the Israel-based Wintego Systems and Saito Tech (Candiru).[5]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reports that "Israel" imported goods worth $105.6 million from Indonesia in 2025 (2024: $61.5 million) and exported goods worth $27.3 million to it (2024: $49.7 million).[10]
Political interference
UN voting
Indonesia voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[11]
Ehud Barak's emails
The following items come from the two leaked mailboxes of the former Israeli prime minister and defence minister Ehud Barak (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered.[12]
- On 7 September 2013 Agus Suherman wrote to Barak from Jakarta, thanking him for a meeting in Bali on 4 September about the Flores region, and following up two proposals: agricultural training for 25 Flores farmers at AICAT, pending an Israeli foreign ministry permit, and a pilot plantation using NETAFIM drip irrigation.[13]
- In August 2013 the Julius Baer chief executive Boris Collardi had the bank's Indonesia market head prepare an invitation letter for Barak.[14]
- In September 2013 Barak asked an Israeli contact about a technology fund on behalf of "a friend who is a media tycoon mainly operating in Indonesia", forwarding a query from Eddy Sariaatmadja of Emtek about the Israeli chipmaker Altair Semiconductor.[15]
- On 27 June 2014 Gories Mere wrote to Barak "from Indonesia" to introduce a newly founded firm, Hendropriyono Strategic Consulting.[16]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Malaysia
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to the Philippines
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Singapore
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Thailand
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Vietnam
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Myanmar
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 World Jewish Congress, Community in Indonesia worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Indonesia stripped of hosting Under-20 World Cup by Fifa BBC Sport, 29 March 2023, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Genta/Fathur, Kuntum Khaira Riswan, RI may recognize Israel, if Palestine gains independence: Prabowo Antara, 23 September 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Amnesty International, Global: A Web of Surveillance – Unravelling a murky network of spyware exports to Indonesia amnesty.org, 2 May 2024, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Prabowo says Israel’s security key to lasting Middle East peace Antara, 25 September 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ FIFA, FIFA removes Indonesia as host of FIFA U-20 World Cup 2023 inside.fifa.com, 29 March 2023, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ World Artistic Gymnastics Championships: Israel athletes denied visas by Indonesia BBC Sport, 14 October 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ IOC wants no sports events in Indonesia after Israeli athletes’ visa ban The Guardian, 23 October 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ehud Barak emails, 27 August 2025, with download at data.ddosecrets.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Agus Suherman to Ehud Barak, "Flores project", 7 September 2013, file
ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com/Inbox!2/1 (457).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Email from Boris Collardi to Ehud Barak, "Re: Letter for Mr Ehud Barak", 30 August 2013, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!44/1 (87).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Email from Ehud Barak to Nimrod Priell, "Re: DECISION REQUIRED - Pacific Technology Partners Fund", 30 September 2013, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Sent!14/1 (127).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Email from Gories Mere to Ehud Barak, "Indroduction a new Strategic Consulting Company", 27 June 2014, file
ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com/Inbox!2/1 (171).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026.