At the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto stated that Indonesia is ready to deploy 20,000 peacekeepers in Gaza.
According to Anadolu News Agency, Prabowo stressed that as one of the “largest contributors to UN peacekeeping forces,” the Southeast Asian country will continue to “serve where peace needs guardians” actively.
“If and when the Security Council and this Assembly decide,” Indonesia is ready to dispatch 20,000 or “even more” soldiers to “help secure peace in Gaza or elsewhere in Palestine as part of a united multilateral force—so that the two‑state solution, so that peace in both Palestine and Israel, can become real, not just envisioned,” Prabowo said.
“Violence cannot be used to answer any political conflict because violence can only beget more violence,” Prabowo said, urging the UN to “take a decisive stance to stop this catastrophe.”
“Or the world will enter a very dangerous situation of unending wars and escalating violence,” he warned, adding that “no one country can bully” the whole human family.
Prabowo reminded the assembly of the “colonial domination, oppression, and slavery” Indonesians suffered under the Dutch colonial rule.
“We were treated as less than dogs in our own homeland,” he said, adding that Indonesians therefore know “what it means to be denied justice and what it means to live in apartheid, to live in poverty, and to be denied equal opportunity.”
“We also knew what solidarity can do in our struggle for independence, in our fight to overcome hunger, disease, and poverty,” Prabowo said, underscoring the “vital” UN support Indonesia received.
The Israeli army has killed more than 65,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable and led to starvation and the spread of diseases.
The UN Security Council held an open session on Tuesday evening, during which it discussed the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that achieving just and lasting peace in the Middle East will never be achieved through more violence, but rather requires a collective commitment to diplomatic work, international law, and achieving dignity for all people, calling on the Council to take the necessary measures.
Guterres continued before the Council: “Every member of the Security Council must fulfill the responsibilities that fall upon him”. We should not let this delicate opportunity slip away from our hands.
Meanwhile, Colombia at the UN General Assembly proposed ‘End Genocide Now with a Gaza Protection Force Uniting for Peace’ Resolution. Today, Victor de Currea-Lugo, Middle East Advisor to President Petro of Colombia spoke to supporters outside the Colombian Mission to the UN about the proposal Colombia will be bringing forward to the General Assembly, asking for an armed UN Protection force to ensure aid is delivered to Gaza and to impose sanctions and an arms embargo on the Zionist occupation regime.
Currea-Lugo addressed the limitations of the Security Council and the need for the General Assembly to invoke Resolution 377A, aka Uniting for Peace, which allows it to bypass the veto power of the United States and other permanent security council members. He stressed that the genocide in Gaza is a humanitarian issue, an issue of international law, and that it is Colombia’s duty to take action and hopes that other nations will join in support of Colombia’s proposal.
Currea-Lugo reminded supporters of the role of civil society in mobilizing and using all the possible avenues to pressure their governments to take action against the genocide in Gaza.
World leaders gathered at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday for a high-level meeting on Palestine and the two-State solution.
“Statehood for the Palestinians is a right, not a reward,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
Calling on world leaders to do all they can to help bring peace for the people of Israel and Palestine, he stressed:
“We must recommit ourselves to the Two-State solution before it is too late. A solution in which two independent, contiguous, democratic, viable and sovereign States are mutually recognized and fully integrated into the international community.”
