New York. Indonesia finds Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent statement of “seeking peace”  incredibly ironic and hard to believe, according to Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi at the UN.

Netanyahu recently spoke before an almost empty UN General Assembly chamber as many country representatives -- including those from Indonesia -- walked out of the room to stand in solidarity with Palestine. Netanyahu talked about Israel's yearning for peace -- a speech delivered shortly before launching massive airstrikes at the militant group Hezbollah’s headquarters in Lebanon’s Beirut. But Netanyahu’s UN speech failed to convince Indonesia who has kept its strong supportive stance to Palestine. 

“PM Netanyahu yesterday mentioned and I quote: that ‘Israel seeks peace’, that ‘Israel yearns for peace’. Really? How are we supposed to believe that statement? Yesterday, while he was here, Israel conducted unprecedented massive air attacks on Beirut,” Retno told the UN General Assembly in New York on Saturday local time. 

“Prime Minister Netanyahu wants the war to continue. We must stop that. I repeat, we must stop that,” Retno said. 

Indonesia then called for countries to “pressure Israel to come back to a political solution for a two-state solution”. Countries have presented the two-state solution as the key to ending the war as the plan advocates Palestine and Israel co-existing side by side as two independent states. Amidst UN’s overwhelming support to the two-state solution, Retno said this would be the right time to “walk the talk”. She then urged countries to recognize Palestinian statehood. Over 140 countries out of 193 UN countries have officially declared their recognition. 

“Recognizing the State of Palestine is the least that we can do now, to give Palestinian equal footing on the world's stage and to exert pressure on Israel to stop their atrocities. … If every one of us does it, for sure it will have an impact,” Retno said. 

The Indonesian minister also took a jab at the UN Security Council’s inaction against Israel, even saying that the decision-making body might only take action once the Palestinian death toll tops 100,00 people or after a regional armed conflict breaks out. This is also not the first time that Indonesia criticized the UN Security Council -- whose permanent members include Israel’s major military backer US -- for not doing enough for Palestine. 

“The mandate of the Security Council is to maintain peace, to create peace, not to maintain and prolong wars, or even worse to support the perpetrator of atrocities. Inaction means complicity,” Retno said. 

Indonesian diplomats had walked out when Netanyahu delivered his UN speech on Friday. As soon as Netanyahu stepped onto the podium, the Israeli prime minister tried to justify the attacks as self-defense. 

“Israel seeks peace. Israel yearns for peace. Israel has made peace, and will make peace again. Yet we face savage enemies who seek our annihilation. We must save ourselves against these savage murderers,” Netanyahu said at the time. 

The official number of Palestinians killed has topped 42,000 since Oct. 7, 2023. Amidst climbing Palestinian death toll, the Israel-Hezbollah conflict has heightened. In a major escalation to the Middle East conflict, Israel’s recent Beirut airstrikes have killed Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah. 

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