Israel and Indonesian vice president Gibran prove the powerful can break rules and walk free

Today marks three years since Israel began its genocide in Gaza. Three years in which Israel has faced no real punishment. On the eve of this anniversary, a court in Indonesia showed the world exactly how this impunity works: the powerful break the rules, the system watches, and nobody lifts a finger.

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country. It has no diplomatic ties with Israel and has long been one of Palestine’s loudest defenders. On 6 October, its Constitutional Court ruled on the case of Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, eldest son of former president Joko Widodo. Indonesian law is crystal clear: every candidate for president or vice president must have finished high school.

Twelve citizens asked the court to remove Gibran, saying he never had a real high school certificate. In court, the Ministry of Education admitted something scandalous. In 2019 it handed Gibran an official letter declaring his schooling in Singapore and Australia equal to an Indonesian high school, without ever seeing his diploma. All it had was a certificate of attendance. No graduation certificate was produced during the entire case.

The judges found no convincing proof that Gibran holds a high school diploma. Then they rejected the case anyway. Their excuse: he is already in office, so the matter was beyond their power. They tossed the problem to “other institutions” and refused to name one.

This was not the first time the rules were bent for Gibran. In 2023, the same court changed the minimum age for candidates so he could run. The chief judge was his own uncle, later found to have seriously broken the court’s ethics rules. The decision was never reversed. Gibran’s response this week was that he could not have gone to university without finishing school. That is not proof. It is contempt for every ordinary citizen ever asked to show a real diploma.

Palestinians have watched this same script for three years, written in blood.

In January 2024, the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations, heard South Africa’s case that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. There is no final decision yet, but the court ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide and let food and medicine into Gaza. As conditions grew worse, it issued more orders in March and May 2024.

READ: Over 20,000 students killed in Gaza, West Bank in 3 years of Israeli genocide: Palestinian ministry

In September 2025, a UN commission led by former judge Navi Pillay concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Amnesty International reached the same conclusion. So did the world’s leading genocide scholars, and even Israeli human rights groups. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children. Whole families have been wiped out.

And what has Israel paid? Nothing that matters. The court’s timetable gives Israel until May 2029 to send its last written answer. In August, South Africa complained that Israel was openly defying the orders it had already received. Western weapons and trade keep flowing. Governments that promised to arrest people wanted by the International Criminal Court have rolled out the red carpet for Netanyahu instead. Accountability is dumped on “other institutions”, usually the UN Security Council, where Washington kills every attempt with its veto.

A missing school certificate is not the killing of a people. But the machinery of impunity is identical. The powerful break the rules. Courts see it, record it, then step aside. Everyone points at someone else, and the guilty walk free.

For years, Jakarta has demanded that the world respect international courts and make Israel answer for its crimes. That demand rings hollow when Indonesia cannot enforce the simplest rule of its own constitution on its own vice president. Every government that excuses broken rules at home hands Israel another excuse abroad.

The tools to act already exist. Indonesia’s parliament can begin removing a vice president who does not meet the conditions for the job, and the citizens’ lawyer has said this week’s ruling could support exactly that. The world can halt arms sales to Israel, impose sanctions and arrest wanted leaders the moment they land. What is missing is courage.

A court decision that changes nothing is not justice. It is a receipt for injustice. After three years of genocide, Palestinians do not need more records of their suffering. They need action. Until the world finds the will to act, the powerful will keep breaking the rules, in Jakarta and in Gaza.

OPINION: If Indonesia really supports Palestine, it needs to do something about its pro-Israel politicians

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.