An organization of clerics representing more than half of Indonesia’s 230 million Muslims released a statement condemning Hamas’ attack against Israel.

Rahim World Peace (RAHIM), an organization of Muslim clerics in Indonesia, released an official statement saying that it “regrets Hamas’s repressive attacks on Israel which killed thousands of civilians and disrupted the peace process between Israel and Palestine”.

“Dozens of Hamas soldiers from Gaza managed to infiltrate Re’im and opened fire on civilians who were watching the Music Festival,” the statement read. “Some of them were kidnapped and then taken to Gaza and used as hostages. In order to maintain security, stability and world peace, RAHIM urges international organizations to put pressure on Hamas to stop their attacks on Israel.”

Executive Director RAHIM who is also Chair of LBM PWNU DKI Jakarta, KH Mukti Ali Qusyairi, MA, stated, “We deeply regret and strongly condemn attacks on anyone by anyone. This attack by Hamas not only killed thousands of civilians, but has also triggered a major counterattack from Israel which would disrupt or hinder peace efforts from various parties.”

Mukti added that currently the world is making peace efforts to prevent war between countries such as the Russia-Ukraine war, in addition to efforts to recover the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic that has hit the whole world. 

“These efforts will not work well without the cooperation of all countries in maintaining security and maintaining peace,” the statement read. “The G20 and R20 which were held in Indonesia several months ago discussed various issues including the Russia-Ukraine war and its impact on the world, inter-religious harmony where religion is expected to be a solution to recent conflicts, economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic, and climate change. All of this should not be ignored and should be a matter of mutual concern to be resolved,” he said.

RAHIM’s co-lead of its Steering Committee for International Affairs, Elisheva Stross, who lives in Jerusalem, commented that until now, Hamas has always attacked Israel with missiles without succeeding in causing significant casualties on the Israeli side, because of the high percentage of success of their iron dome defense system.

This statement is significant as the Muslim leaders in the RAHIM coalition are representative of 50% of the Indonesian Muslim population,” Stross said. “There are still Indonesians who praise Hamas but they are in the smaller groups and represent a minority.”

She noted that in many aspects, the recent turn of events is unprecedented.

“So far, every time Israel launches a very effective retaliation attack, the end result is world condemnation against Israel,” Stross said. “This is because there are more victims killed as collateral damage from Israeli retaliation than Israeli victims of Hamas attacks. The number of Palestinians killed is exacerbated because Hamas uses Gazans as human shields. Hamas also uses public facilities as operational and launching centers for their missiles, such as hospitals, schools and civilian settlements.”

“Hamas,” continued Elisheva, “has now shown its true face to the world. Their bloodthirsty brutality, ultimately, is more ISIS-like than the patriotism they claim.”

She cited the shooting of students at a music festival, killing and kidnapping of elderly residents, including executing children and 40 babies in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

“Hamas claims that they will start executing every Israeli they take hostage, for all the bombs that Israel dropped without warning. They promised to execute the hostages while broadcasting LIVE on mass media and social media. Israel still has a war ethic that requires the IDF to distribute pamphlets from the air into Gaza, or broadcast on radio and TV, or sending voice and text messages to Gazan mobile phones, as a warning to civilians to get out of the area they are about to destroy.”

“This is a military practice that has never been implemented by other countries’ militaries. Who would ever announce their arrival to the enemy anyway, except the IDF? Now it’s up to the world to watch, to choose whether to applaud or condemn the Hamas invasion attack,” she continued.

Yohannes Elias, RAHIM’s Dissemination & Information Manager said that Hamas’ atrocities in carrying out massacres at music festivals for peace held near the border of the Gaza Strip and in Israel’s southern cities, shows the true identity of Hamas. After massacring unarmed civilians including 40 babies in Kfar Aza, they also kidnapped, abused their victims and made them hostages and took them to the Gaza Strip, seriously violating humanitarian laws.

“This heinous act is very far from being considered an act of patriotism for the struggle for independence,” Elias said. “On the other hand, I hope that Israel will only retaliate against the guilty party, namely Hamas, by minimizing the casualties of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, even though that is difficult because Hamas always uses the Palestinian civilian population as human shields.”

“The hope for peace must never stop, that hope must always be built,” he explained.

On the same occasion, RAHIM’s Operational & Finance Director, Leo Agustinus Yuwono, said that the attacks, or more precisely, the massacres carried out by Hamas against the Israeli population, had seriously injured humanity. Where civilians were deliberately targeted, namely those who were participating in music performances (concerts) for peace, and also local residents. And this is coupled with inappropriate and very inhumane performances, namely parading the victims’ bodies, kidnapping children and the elderly, and carrying out executions in front of the family.

He continued, “Very cruel and far from humanity. In particular, I regret the reaction of national figures who actually supported and praised what Hamas did on that dark Saturday as a heroic act and progress. This is very unfortunate.”

RAHIM also regretted that many media in Indonesia continuously carried out provocations by spreading hoax news that did not match the facts on the ground and supported Hamas’ aggression against Israel without looking at what was actually happening.

Researcher of RAHIM, KH Roland Gunawan stated, “Almost all media in Indonesia supports Hamas’ attacks on Israel. The hoax news that was spread made many people consider Hamas soldiers to be heroes. Many people are proud that Hamas rockets managed to penetrate Israel’s defenses. In fact, many people are happy that Hamas soldiers shot, killed, kidnapped and held Israeli civilians hostage. Really, this is very concerning.”

According to Roland, Hamas’ attacks on Israel cannot necessarily be considered to represent the will of the Palestinian state and people. Nor can it be claimed as a religious war between Jews and Muslims. This attack was purely an attack by the Hamas terrorist group which does not want peace to be realized between Israel and Palestine.       

“Since its inception, Hamas has always been an obstacle to every peace effort between Israel and Palestine. They are not defending the interests of the Palestinian people, but rather defending the interests of their own group. Palestine is only being used as a shield to attract sympathy from the world’s Muslim community,” he concluded.

Overseas Research Manager of RAHIM, Avigayil Solomon said, “I really regret that the position statements of most humanitarian organizations in the world are too neutral and do not firmly condemn Hamas’ actions which clearly violate international humanitarian law in the way they deliberately target civilians, especially groups vulnerable people such as children, women and the elderly, and people with disabilities are the targets of their operations, be it massacres or kidnappings.”

Avigayil Solomon was very surprised to see so many individuals and organizations openly issuing statements praising Hamas’s heinous actions. “There is a teaching in Judaism that says: One who becomes compassionate to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the compassionate,” she concluded.