In late July, another group of Indonesian agriculture students from East Nusa Tenggara departed for Israel as part of a nearly year-long internship at the Arava International Centre for Agricultural Training (Aicat).

This is not a fringe programme. It is part of a formal agreement signed in 2014 between Chinese-Indonesian businessman Agus Suherman and the Israeli-based training centre. A total of 100 Indonesian students were enrolled in the 2024-2025 cohort.

The Indonesian government may not officially recognise Israel, but this programme is recognition by another name. These students enter on Israeli visas, train at Israeli institutions and work on Israeli land - even as Palestinians are starved, bombed, displaced and imprisoned by the same state.