Shafaq News – Jakarta

Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the world’s largest Islamic organization, is pushing its chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf to resign after he invited a US scholar who publicly supported Israel during the Gaza war.

According to NU meeting minutes reviewed by Reuters on Saturday, the leadership gave Staquf three days to step down or be removed, citing his invitation of a figure “affiliated with an international Zionism network” to an internal August event, alongside alleged financial mismanagement.

The invited "scholar," David Berkowitz, has published articles defending Israel’s campaign and spoke at NU seminars on Western political thought, according to his website.

Staquf described the invitation as an oversight and condemned Israel’s “brutal genocidal acts in Gaza.”

Founded in 1926, NU counts around 100 million members in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, which has no diplomatic ties with Israel and has consistently condemned its actions in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

Israel’s war in the Strip has killed 69,546 Palestinians and wounded 170,833, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, as Tel Aviv continues its violations of the effective ceasefire agreement.