{"id":2262,"date":"2025-10-21T23:04:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T23:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/?p=2262"},"modified":"2025-10-21T23:04:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T23:04:25","slug":"president-wenda-if-indonesia-can-recognise-israel-and-palestine-why-not-west-papua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/?p=2262","title":{"rendered":"President Wenda: If Indonesia can recognise Israel and Palestine, why not West Papua?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

September 24, 2025 in Statement<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At UNGA yesterday, Indonesia ple<\/a>dged to recognise Israel<\/a> if they in turn recognise a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prabowo\u2019s words are yet another act of Indonesian hypocrisy, playing with self-determination on the world stage while violently denying West Papuans this right at home. I ask again: what is the difference between West Papua and Palestine? Why do one people deserve statehood while another deserves endless occupation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indonesia\u2019s claim on West Papua is based on a fraud. We declared our independence in 1961, in a ceremony that was witnessed by UN members including the UK, the Netherlands and Australia. The invasion the following year stole our sovereignty from us. The 1969 Act of No Choice involved only 1025 West Papuans \u2013 less than 0.2% of the population \u2013 being forced to vote against independence at the barrel of a gun. More than 500,000 West Papuans have since lost their lives in our struggle to right the wrong of 1969.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prabowo\u2019s speech was full of shameless hypocrisy. He stated Indonesia\u2019s commitment to fighting climate change \u2013 and yet they are right now clearing land in West Papua for the world\u2019s largest deforestation project. He used UNGA to pledge to \u201cbuild a world<\/a> where the weak do not suffer what they must but live the justice they deserve\u201d. And yet academic experts agree that Indonesia is committing a genocide against the weak and voiceless in West Papua. Only this month the Indonesian military murdered civilian Sadrak Yahome after anti-racism protests in Yalimo, triggered by the racist abuse of a Papuan student by an Indonesian settler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can Prabowo be against Israeli settlement of the West Bank when he has ramped up Indonesian settlement of West Papua?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pacific leaders should respond at UNGA by reminding the world of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in West Papua, where over 100,000 civilians are currently displaced. They must again demand, in line with the recent PIF communique, that Indonesia stop blocking the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to West Papua. They must expose the secret of West Papua.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benny Wenda<\/strong>
President
ULMWP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ULMWP delegation at UNGA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 24, 2025 in Statement At UNGA yesterday, Indonesia pledged to recognise Israel if they in turn recognise a Palestinian state. Prabowo\u2019s words are yet another act of Indonesian hypocrisy, playing with self-determination on the world stage while violently denying West Papuans this right at home. I ask again: what is the difference between West […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,57,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-benny-wenda-statement","category-benny-wenda","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2264,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262\/revisions\/2264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}