Indonesia Urges OIC Action Against Gaza Annexation and Greater Israel Push

Jakarta seeks a united response to Gaza crisis

Indonesia has urged the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to use its diplomatic and economic strength to stop what Jakarta described as plans for the permanent occupation of Gaza and the further expansion of Israeli control in the West Bank. The appeal came at an emergency meeting in Jeddah in late August, as hunger, displacement and the collapse of essential services deepened the crisis facing Palestinians.

Turkey chaired the gathering, which brought together representatives from 43 of the OIC's 57 member states. Attendance included 21 foreign ministers alongside the Palestinian foreign minister. Indonesia pressed governments to mobilize their resources against any attempt to place Gaza under full Israeli military control and to curb settlement expansion in the West Bank.

Recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsing expansion of Israeli control in line with the concept commonly called Greater Israel added urgency to the talks. Arab governments and wider Muslim and international audiences condemned the idea as a threat to international law and regional stability.

Indonesian Deputy Foreign Minister Anis Matta called for a united mechanism to protect the security and sovereignty of countries across the region. Jakarta also sought dependable humanitarian routes into Gaza by land, air and sea, wider recognition of Palestinian statehood and a special session of the United Nations Security Council.

The meeting ended with a joint statement rejecting full Israeli military control over Gaza and demanding an immediate halt to attacks and the lifting of the siege. Its practical challenge is to turn those common positions into sustained pressure, reliable aid deliveries and protection for civilians.

What Indonesia wants OIC governments to do

Indonesia's proposals joined immediate relief with a broader political campaign. Jakarta urged OIC members to work with international organizations to end the war, open dependable routes for food and medicine, and oppose policies that would deepen occupation or redraw borders by force.

Anis Matta said governments should draw on their collective strength and agree on a mechanism capable of safeguarding regional sovereignty and security. Indonesia framed the emergency meeting as an opportunity to raise the diplomatic costs of annexation while pressing for an end to occupation policies.

Indonesian officials also pointed to a shift in global public opinion on Palestine. They urged OIC capitals to use that momentum to secure broader recognition of Palestinian statehood and intensify lobbying at the UN General Assembly and other international forums.

The proposed Security Council session would address Israel's occupation of Gaza and the rest of the Palestinian territory. Jakarta linked that request to urgent efforts to secure humanitarian access and build international support for Palestinian rights.

Anis Matta, Indonesia's deputy foreign minister, condemned the use of hunger in warfare while addressing the humanitarian emergency:

There is nothing worse than using starvation as a weapon of war and genocide against our brothers and sisters in Gaza.

Why Greater Israel alarmed regional governments

Netanyahu's comments brought renewed attention to a term long used in political and academic debate. Greater Israel describes ambitions to extend Israeli control beyond internationally recognized borders. References to absorbing Gaza, the West Bank and parts of neighboring countries appear in that discourse, explaining the alarm among regional governments.

OIC members viewed that vision as a threat extending beyond the Palestinian territories. Indonesian officials warned that efforts to put it into practice would increase regional instability, spread conflict across borders and weaken the legal framework that has guided Arab and Israeli diplomacy for decades.

The Jeddah closing statement rejected plans to impose full military control over Gaza, describing them as a dangerous escalation that would entrench unlawful occupation by force. Delegates also condemned policies they said involved starvation, widespread destruction and forced demographic displacement, meaning the forced movement of people that changes who lives in a territory.

Hunger and failing services drive the urgency

Gaza's humanitarian emergency shaped every part of the Jeddah discussions. Nearly two years into intensive hostilities and siege conditions, residents faced widespread hunger and disease, mass displacement and the collapse of basic services. Water, electricity and health systems across much of the territory had failed under the pressure of conflict and isolation.

The United Nations described Gaza as having entered a state of total famine. In May, the World Health Organization reported that nearly half of Gaza's approximately 2.1 million people were in catastrophic situations involving extreme hunger, acute malnutrition, illness and rising mortality.

Humanitarian agencies documented increasing malnutrition, outbreaks of preventable disease and shrinking supplies of clean water. Disrupted markets and aid flows made it harder to obtain food, while damaged health and sanitation infrastructure left residents more exposed to sickness.

Famine is the most severe category of a food emergency. In humanitarian practice, it describes conditions in which hunger and malnutrition reach levels associated with very high mortality. Food access falls far below basic needs for a sustained period, while medical services struggle to cope with disease and injury.

People trapped by violence or restrictions face an especially acute danger because they cannot reliably reach food or medical help. In these circumstances, humanitarian specialists call for rapid relief operations on a large scale and an end to hostilities that prevent deliveries.

Why relief struggles to reach families

UN agencies have documented serious obstacles at crossings and checkpoints. Inspection delays, security concerns and damaged infrastructure have complicated the movement of food, medicine and other essential supplies into Gaza.

Relief groups describe aid routes that can close without warning. Conflict and access restrictions have constrained both the arrival of trucks and the work of hospitals, leaving families dependent on uncertain deliveries while medical services operate under severe pressure.

The UN has reported that some desperate residents resorted to looting to find food and supplies. With formal channels weak or blocked, families have searched warehouses, shops and aid convoys for anything edible.

Indonesia's demand for dependable routes by land, air and sea sought to address that daily uncertainty. For OIC governments, the emergency required an extraordinary diplomatic effort to make deliveries regular and reach people before hunger and disease caused further deaths.

Turkey calls for coordinated pressure

Turkey echoed Indonesia's demand for collective action. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan urged OIC members to coordinate pressure to halt what he described as annexation efforts and force open reliable aid channels.

Fidan described Gaza's hunger as man made and argued that blocking assistance violated basic legal and moral principles. The Turkish foreign minister stated:

Obstruction of aid is a crime against humanity.

Turkish officials also identified the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Istanbul as a venue for building a broader response to accelerating regional crises, including the confrontation between Israel and Iran. The large turnout of foreign ministers at that gathering reflected interest in a coordinated approach connecting Gaza with wider regional security.

Indonesia and Turkey shared a central demand: member governments should use their combined diplomatic weight to challenge annexation and secure access for humanitarian assistance. Their accounts of the Jeddah resolution described a common position on Gaza annexation, the humanitarian emergency and stronger pressure through global forums.

The legal rules behind the demands

International law forms a central part of the OIC's argument. The UN Charter prohibits the acquisition of territory by force. Occupation law, rooted in the Geneva Conventions, requires an occupying power to protect civilians, maintain basic services as far as possible and allow impartial humanitarian relief.

Occupation concerns the exercise of control over territory. Annexation involves treating that territory as a permanent part of the controlling state. Permanent annexation, or measures designed to change the status of occupied territory, violates the rules described by OIC governments.

The Fourth Geneva Convention also prohibits an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into occupied territory. Many governments assess Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank through that rule and a long record of UN resolutions describing settlement activity as illegal.

International humanitarian law bans starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. Parties to a conflict must allow the rapid and unimpeded passage of relief for civilians in need, subject to lawful controls.

Systematically blocking assistance or using hunger as a tactic can carry criminal consequences. Legal specialists regard such conduct as a grave breach and, depending on the circumstances, a potential crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. OIC governments presented the Gaza crisis as a test of whether these standards would be enforced.

Indonesia builds on its Palestine diplomacy

Indonesia has supported Palestinian statehood for decades and does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel. Jakarta anchors that position in its Constitution and in statements by successive national leaders.

At the OIC Summit in Banjul earlier in the conflict, then Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said peace required an end to occupation. She urged unity behind Palestinian rights, including the campaign for full UN membership.

The summit adopted the Banjul Declaration, reaffirming support for Palestinian self determination and calling on the international community to press for compliance with international law. The Jeddah initiative continued that emphasis on collective diplomacy and Palestinian political rights.

Indonesian Middle East expert Muhammad Syaroni Rofii urged Jakarta to bring Gaza's hunger crisis before the UN General Assembly and rally the Non Aligned Movement behind a common position. He pointed to growing support for recognition of Palestinian statehood among Western governments as an opening for concrete diplomacy.

Indonesia also used the Jeddah gathering for bilateral talks. Anis Matta met his Iraqi counterpart to explore economic and investment cooperation. Jakarta sees such relationships as a way to build shared interests that can support common positions at the OIC and the United Nations.

Regional tensions extend beyond Gaza

Indonesia's Gaza diplomacy has developed alongside its response to the confrontation between Israel and Iran. In recent months, 24 governments, including Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan and Malaysia, condemned Israeli strikes on Iran and called for an immediate ceasefire.

Their joint message urged de escalation, respect for sovereignty and a regional zone free of nuclear weapons. Although focused on a separate crisis, those demands echoed the themes raised in Jeddah: protecting national sovereignty, preventing wider conflict and coordinating diplomatic pressure.

Jakarta also took practical steps to protect Indonesians caught in the regional turmoil. The Foreign Ministry raised alert levels at Indonesia's embassy in Tehran and prepared evacuation plans as hostilities between Israel and Iran escalated.

Those preparations placed citizen protection alongside Indonesia's advocacy for Palestinian rights. Turkish officials similarly linked discussion of Gaza with the need for a broader regional response through OIC meetings.

How the diplomatic effort developed

The push in Jeddah followed earlier political commitments and increasingly urgent humanitarian warnings. Several stages explain how Indonesia's demands came together:

• Earlier in the conflict, the OIC Summit in Banjul adopted a declaration supporting Palestinian self determination. Retno Marsudi called for an end to occupation and support for full Palestinian UN membership.
• In May, the WHO reported that nearly half of Gaza's approximately 2.1 million residents faced catastrophic conditions involving hunger, malnutrition, illness and rising mortality.
• In recent months, Indonesia joined 23 other governments in condemning Israeli strikes on Iran and calling for an immediate ceasefire.
• In late August, Turkey chaired the emergency OIC meeting in Jeddah, where Indonesia pressed for action against Gaza annexation and settlement expansion in the West Bank.
• By September 6, 2025, attention centered on possible UN initiatives and further coordination through the OIC, including discussions associated with Istanbul.

The Jeddah statement called for an immediate halt to Israeli attacks, the lifting of Gaza's siege and swift international action to protect civilians. It also demanded a regular flow of assistance and condemned starvation, destruction on a large scale and forced demographic displacement.

Participation by 43 of the OIC's 57 member states gave the meeting a broad base. Governments agreed on the need for action, while their different national interests and external partnerships continued to shape what measures they might take.

Turning a common position into action

OIC governments have several possible tools. Analysts sympathetic to Indonesia's position have pointed to coordinated action at the UN, a wider campaign for recognition of Palestinian statehood, support for international legal proceedings and humanitarian corridors monitored by impartial agencies.

Some regional commentary has called for stronger political and economic pressure on Israel and prosecution of grave crimes where evidence supports such cases. A coordinated bloc could also push for emergency meetings and resolutions while maintaining attention on Gaza's hunger crisis.

Member states face different security concerns, national interests and external relationships. Some have explored or maintained quiet contacts with Israel, while others reject normalization without an end to occupation. These differences make synchronized diplomacy, common messaging and shared support for humanitarian operations among the most achievable immediate steps.

Indonesia wants a special Security Council session, while diplomats anticipate possible General Assembly initiatives on Gaza's famine and recognition of Palestinian statehood. The Istanbul discussions are expected to review further action, coordination with the Arab League, mechanisms to keep aid moving and efforts to reduce regional tensions. No dates were given for the proposed UN initiatives or those next discussions.

For Gaza's residents, the concrete priorities are food, medicine, functioning services and protection from further displacement. For Indonesia and its OIC partners, the political objective is to connect that immediate relief with opposition to annexation and a process grounded in international law.

Key Points

• Indonesia urged OIC members to use diplomatic and economic tools against Gaza annexation and settlement expansion in the West Bank.
• Turkey chaired the late August Jeddah meeting, attended by representatives from 43 of the OIC's 57 member states.
• Netanyahu's endorsement of the Greater Israel concept prompted regional objections over sovereignty and security.
• The Jeddah statement rejected full Israeli military control over Gaza and demanded an end to attacks, the lifting of the siege and regular aid deliveries.
• The UN described Gaza as entering total famine. The WHO's May warning placed nearly half of its approximately 2.1 million residents in catastrophic conditions.
• Jakarta sought a special UN Security Council session, broader recognition of Palestinian statehood and dependable humanitarian routes by land, air and sea.
• Further diplomacy focused on the UN, OIC coordination and discussions in Istanbul, with no dates given for the proposed next initiatives.