Jakarta: Indonesian rent-a-crowd ‘protesters’ were paid less than $3.50 each to attend a rally opposing any move by the Australian government of its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
About 250 people attended the rally on Friday, the fourth rally in the last five days, outside Australia’s sprawling embassy compound in Kuningan, south Jakarta and which was organised by the Indonesian Muslim League, a little-known group.
But while some attending the protest appeared to be genuinely fired-up by the prospect of Australia shifting its embassy to Jerusalem, perhaps half the crowd appeared largely disinterested and showed little enthusiasm for the speaker imploring them to agree to “occupy” the embassy.
Fairfax Media confirmed with three of the ‘protesters’ hanging around on the fringes of the rally that many had been paid to attend.
Many members of the crowd looked bored, posed for selfies, played with their phones, hid in the shade away from the afternoon sun and appeared not be listening to the speakers at the rally.
Read the report by James Massola & Karuni Rompies in The Sydney Morning Herald.