Humanitarian and Constitutional Arguments in Kompas.com’s Coverage of Political and Religious Elites’ Opposition to Israel’s 2023 U-20 World Cup Participation

Abstrak

This study examines how Kompas.com represented the stated justifications of political and religious elites during the controversy over Israel’s participation in the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia. The dataset comprises 26 purposively selected articles published between March 14 and April 4, 2023, that reported relevant statements or positions by political figures and religious organizations. Qualitative content analysis compares the reasons explicitly reported for actors associated with PDI-P, PKS, PAN, Muhammadiyah, and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI). The findings identify constitutional and anti-colonial arguments, support for Palestinian independence, the absence of diplomatic relations with Israel, and regional security concerns. Ganjar Pranowo’s position was associated with support for Palestine and Sukarno’s political legacy; I Wayan Koster’s with regional security; Hasto Kristiyanto addressed allegations of electoral motivation; MUI and Muhammadiyah were reported mainly through constitutional and diplomatic arguments; and the available report did not provide enough detail to establish PAN’s principal rationale. Islamic solidarity was not consistently presented as an explicit justification. The findings concern the representation of elite statements in the selected Kompas.com articles and do not establish the actors’ internal motives or media effects on audiences.