But while the speeches soar, the country’s business contracts tell another story. Indonesia is quietly welcoming Israeli-linked money into its economy—most visibly through Ormat Technologies, a geothermal giant founded in Israel. A nation cannot claim to champion Palestinian freedom while allowing Israeli firms to profit from its soil. That is not solidarity. It is hypocrisy.
According to deduktif.id, an Indonesian investigative media, Ormat has embedded itself deep into Indonesia’s renewable energy sector. The company owns nearly half of the Ijen geothermal project in East Java, a large stake in Sarulla in North Sumatra, and full control of a unit in North Sulawesi. It is also expanding in Maluku. These are not marginal deals. They sit at the heart of Indonesia’s “green energy” future.
Hosting Ormat is not only inconsistent with Indonesia’s support for Palestine—it is also devastating at home. In Bondowoso, near Ijen, residents report poisoned wells, ruined farmland, and explosions so severe that schools were forced to close. Toxic gas emissions linger in the air, fueling daily anxiety. In Maluku, indigenous communities that resisted Ormat’s projects were criminalised and driven from their ancestral land. This is development in the form of dispossession—echoing the very story Palestinians know all too well.
This is not an accident. Israel has spent years using companies like Ormat as tools of influence, especially in countries without diplomatic ties. Its Hasbara Fellowship program recruits young people—including Indonesians—for intensive training in Jerusalem. Participants return home tasked with burnishing Israel’s image and normalising its companies abroad. Deduktif found that Indonesians have joined these trips, flown to Israel, given a carefully curated view of life under siege, and sent back to shape the public discourse.
Within Indonesia, the company’s presence has expanded into academia. Prestigious universities like the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) have hosted Ormat executives, run joint webinars, and even formalised a geothermal master’s program in 2025. What looks like academic collaboration is, in truth, political laundering—granting legitimacy to an Israeli-founded company while Gaza starves.
Why would Indonesia tolerate this? Ormat’s track record abroad is hardly reassuring. Hindenburg Research in 2021 exposed allegations of bribery, money laundering, and corruption tied to its projects in Guatemala, Kenya, and Honduras. Israeli prosecutors have pursued company officials for bribery and securities fraud. Yet in Jakarta, this firm is embraced as a partner in the national energy sector.
The double standard is stunning. Indonesia wraps itself in the rhetoric of anti-colonial solidarity but hands Israeli firms lucrative contracts. It denounces occupation abroad while enabling land grabs at home. It applauds the fatwa against indirect support for Israel yet ignores it in practice.
This is not harmless inconsistency—it actively undermines the Palestinian struggle. South Africa’s apartheid regime did not fall because world leaders gave stirring speeches. It fell because governments, companies, and universities severed ties. Boycotts, divestments, and sanctions worked. That same principle must apply here. Every dollar that flows to Israeli-founded companies strengthens a system of occupation and dispossession.
Indonesia has alternatives. It does not need Ormat. Japan, South Korea, China, and the European Union all stand ready to help finance Indonesia’s renewable transition. To suggest that Israel-linked capital is indispensable is to accept complicity as inevitable. It is not.
If Indonesia wants to be more than a symbolic supporter of Palestine, it must act. Cancel Ormat’s contracts. Bar Israeli-linked companies from future deals. Direct universities to end partnerships that launder Israel’s image. Enforce the fatwa. Show the world that Jakarta’s principles are not for sale.
The choice is stark. Remain the loudest voice for Palestine in rhetoric while undermining it in practice. Or match words with deeds and prove that solidarity means more than sympathy.
No investment deal can disguise complicity, and no contract is worth the betrayal of an occupied people.
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