If Indonesia’s support for Palestine never changes, why is Israel’s ZIM shipping company still reaching its ports? |
On 14 August 2026, the Speaker of Indonesia’s People’s Consultative Assembly, Ahmad Muzani, stood before parliament in Jakarta and said something Indonesians have heard many times before. He said that Indonesia’s support for Palestine has never wavered. He tied it to Indonesia’s own history of colonization and to the country’s constitution, which calls on Indonesia to help build a world order based on freedom, lasting peace, and social justice.
These are strong words, and many Indonesians believe them sincerely. Indonesia has no diplomatic relations with Israel. Indonesian passports state they are not valid for travel to Israel. Indonesian leaders, from Sukarno to Prabowo Subianto, have repeated the same message for decades: Palestine must be free, and Indonesia stands with it.
But there is a gap between what a government says and what actually happens at its ports. And that gap has a name: ZIM.
ZIM Integrated Shipping Services is a container shipping company founded in Israel in 1945. For much of its history it was partly owned by the Israeli state. Today it is one of the twenty largest shipping companies in the world, and it is widely reported to be closely tied to Israel’s economy and, according to campaigners, to shipments connected to Israel’s military.
ZIM Integrated Shipping Services is a container shipping company founded in Israel in 1945. For much of its history it was partly owned by the Israeli state. Today it is one of the twenty largest shipping companies in the world, and it is........