The Indonesian refusal to recognise the existence of Israel rears its head again.

The Federation Cup tennis team are supposed to meet Israel on July 15th to 16th but the deputy secretary-general of the Indonesian Tennis Association, August Ferry Raturandang, says detik this cannot be:

We can’t play in Israel.
(Kami tidak bisa bermain di Israel.)

because Indonesia and Israel have no diplomatic ties.

He said he realises the consequences of this:

We have no choice but to pay the $5.000 fine and be banned from competition for one year.
(Kami tidak ada pilihan lain kecuali membayar denda $5.000 serta dilarang bertanding untuk satu tahun mendatang.)

as well as forfeit the tie of course.

He added that he hoped the International Tennis Federation would select a neutral country to hold the tie.

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24th May 2006

Vice-chairman of Commission I in the parliament from the Muslim-based PKB, Effendi Choirie, explained ranesi the decision to Radio Nederland.

Effendi said he agreed with the decision because it recognised that the political side of relations with Israel, which were non-existent, were only one part of the equation. Trade ties, cultural exchanges, sports ties, human ties, and so forth, continued to exist in spite of the lack of diplomatic relations. Sport, he said, was a univeral pursuit and should not be mixed up with politics.

Effendi was asked whether some would see the Indonesia vs. Israel tennis competition in terms of a religious “war”. He answered that he didn’t know how fundamentalist Muslims would view it but as far as he was concerned not at all. He said the real problem in Israel revolved around land rights, that the Jews had invaded Palestine and expelled the Palestinians. Since the Oslo agreement was signed, he said, the goal was to build a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Effendi said that the ideal situation would be to hold the tennis matches in a neutral place, not in Israel, but ultimately the relationship with Israel had to be kept on track, despite its lack of formality. While continuing to develop “universal” ties Indonesia had to keep up the pressure on Israel to rein in its Zionistic ways and give the Palestinians a homeland, he said.

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5th July 2006.

As fallout from the continued fighting in the West Bank and Gaza, Indonesia has apparently announced jta that the scheduled Federation Cup tennis tie with Israel has been cancelled. This comes after much tooing and froing on the issue previously.

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November 16th 2006

The International Tennis Federation has fined Indonesia $31,600 and banned it from next year’s tournament for canceling its July Fed Cup match against Israel at Tel Aviv. The Indonesian Tennis Association is expected to appeal the ruling before the December 20th deadline, Ferry Raturandang, secretary general of the ITA. Jerusalem Post

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March 9th 2007.

The fine was reduced to $29,100 on appeal. mediaindo