AWG Urges Indonesia to Leave Board of Peace Over UNRWA Dissolution Plan

Jakarta, MINA – The Palestinian advocacy organisation Aqsa Working Group has again called on the Indonesian government to immediately withdraw from the Board of Peace, following what it describes as an attempt by the Trump-led body to dismantle the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in Gaza.

According to AWG, the move is part of a broader American and Zionist Israeli agenda to weaken the United Nations mandate and erase the rights of Palestinian refugees. The demand was made in a statement issued on Saturday, which coincided with the 1,000th day of the Zionist Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people.

AWG Presidium Chairman Muhammad Anshorullah said that in the midst of ongoing genocide, blockade, starvation, and destruction in Gaza, the world should be stopping Zionist Israeli crimes and strengthening humanitarian aid through UNRWA. Instead, he said, efforts are emerging to dissolve the agency.

Anshorullah said AWG had rejected the formation of the Board of Peace from the very beginning, including President Prabowo Subianto’s decision to join the body led by the United States president. He argued that the Board of Peace was not established to fight for Palestinian independence but rather to serve as a political instrument that protects Zionist Israeli impunity, weakens official UN institutions, and diverts global attention from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The activist also condemned the genocide that has now lasted for 1,000 days against the Palestinian people. He said perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity must be tried at the International Criminal Court, just as Nazi leaders were tried in the Nuremberg Trials after World War II.

Anshorullah stressed that the Board of Peace’s plan to replace UNRWA is a form of weakening the official UN mandate and part of a systematic effort to erase the status and rights of Palestinian refugees guaranteed under international law. He asserted that what should be dissolved is not UNRWA but the Zionist Israeli occupation, which for decades has violated international law, imposed apartheid policies, carried out ethnic cleansing, and committed genocide against the Palestinian nation.

He also revealed that during the 1,000 days of genocide in Gaza, more than 310 UN staff serving under UNRWA have been killed by Zionist Israeli forces. He said that averages out to one UN staff member killed every three days, adding that this fact shows UNRWA has become a target precisely because it continues to carry out its humanitarian mandate in Gaza.

For that reason, Anshorullah urged President Prabowo Subianto and all Muslim-majority member states of the Board of Peace to immediately withdraw their membership. He said the plan to dissolve UNRWA has crossed a line, adding that Indonesia has long been known as a strong supporter of UNRWA and even increased its contributions when many countries halted their funding. He said there is no reason for Indonesia to remain in the Board of Peace if that body is being used as a tool to weaken UNRWA.

AWG also called on the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League, the Non-Aligned Movement, and all countries that uphold justice to reject the Board of Peace’s efforts to replace UNRWA, to strengthen the agency’s mandate, and to increase political, economic, and legal pressure on Zionist Israel until the occupation ends and Palestine is free.

The organisation also invited Muslims, humanitarian institutions, civil society organisations, and the international community to strengthen solidarity, increase humanitarian aid, and intensify boycott movements against all entities that support Zionist Israel.

Earlier, United States Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea called on countries to halt funding for UNRWA and redirect it to the Board of Peace. In line with that, the Board of Peace stated that UNRWA has no place in a new Gaza and pushed for the establishment of a new mechanism under its own framework to replace the UN agency’s role in channelling humanitarian aid. The statement has drawn widespread criticism for allegedly weakening the UN mandate and benefiting Zionist Israeli interests amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.[]

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)