An anti-government protest in Belgrade on Tuesday has sparked criticism for antisemitic outbursts and calls for the murder of Serbia's president.
Protests broke out on Tuesday across the city after police raided the headquarters of the University of Belgrade, saying they were investigating a student's death. The university, however, said authorities were abusing power to squash student protests. Thousands gathered outside the rectorate to protest the police action.
Footage of the protest, however, showed one protester shouting "Death to Vučić and the Jews around him."
In a joint statement to The Jerusalem Post, Chairman of the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Serbia, MK Boaz Toporovsky, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem for 40 years, and Aleksandar Nikolić, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Serbia in the State of Israel, said: "No political motive whatsoever justifies such calls."
Serbian president a 'proven friend' to Jewish people, Israel
The three figures referred to President Aleksandar Vučić as "a proven friend of the Jewish people and the State of Israel in its most difficult times."
"The Serbian people made the right choice and proved it in their fight against Nazism and fascism during World War II and the Holocaust, during which they themselves were one of the targeted and most serious victims. Especially today, in their fight against the revision of history and its distortion, there is no place for such unacceptable calls," the three told the Post.
Minister of European Integration of Serbia, Nemanja Starović, who is also Chairperson of the delegation of the Republic of Serbia to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, condemned the violence, saying he was "particularly appalled by the horrifying outbursts of antisemitism, including explicit calls for the murder of the President of Serbia and the Jewish people."
"On multiple occasions over the past months, we have warned about the widespread antisemitic ideology within the so-called blockade movement at universities in Serbia," he said. "Ignoring this dangerous threat has allowed it to escalate into open calls for murder, which now appear as a logical and inevitable outcome."
He urged all protest organizers, instigators, and supporters "to clearly and unambiguously condemn these antisemitic incidents and to immediately remove all antisemitic messages and slogans from university premises."
While in Jerusalem in December, Starović said his country is unequivocally committed to the fight against antisemitism, historical revisionism, and any form of relativization of the Holocaust.
President Vučić himself told the Post last year that Serbia “will always appreciate, respect, and like the Jewish people and Israel."