Building on history, Serbia is modernizing its partnership with Israel
While Serbia takes unrestrained pride in the history of genuine friendship between Serbs and Jews, as well as our shared and individual tragedies, it is our common future that we want to focus on.
By ANA BRNABICGERMAN CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron welcome Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic at the Chancellery in Berlin last year.(photo credit: ANNEGRET HILSE / REUTERS)
In July 2018, President Reuven Rivlin visited Serbia, where he joined Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in renaming a street after the Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl, in the Belgrade neighborhood of Zemun. It was in Belgrade that Rabbi Judah Ben Shlomo Hai Alkalai educated Herzl’s grandfather and father, laying the intellectual foundation of the Jewish state.Ninety years later, Serbia became the first country in the world to endorse the Balfour Declaration. In a letter to David Albala, the Serbian-Jewish war hero who fought valiantly for Serbia in the First and Second Balkan Wars and in World War I, Serbia’s ambassador to the United States backed the Balfour Declaration. This marked the first time that any government had referred to the country of “Israel.”The Serbian ambassador concluded the letter to Albala beautifully, stating, “It will be a sad thing for us to see any of our Jewish fellow citizens leaving us to return to their promised land; but we shall console ourselves in the hope that they stand as brothers and leave with us a good part of their hearts, and that they will be the strongest tie between free Israel and Serbia.”And, indeed, that has been, is, and will always be the case. To be sure, Serbia will never forget our joint suffering, especially the 500,000 Serbs and 30,000 Jews murdered in horrifically sadistic ways by the Croatian Ustasha fascists at extermination camps like Jasenovac, which is explicitly commemorated at Yad Vashem, or its own suffering, such as the permanent eradication of 200,000 Serbs from Kosovo and ethnic cleansing of 250,000 Serbs from Croatia in the 1990s, only a fraction of whom have returned to their homes.While Serbia takes unrestrained pride in the history of genuine friendship between Serbs and Jews, as well as our shared and individual tragedies, and nothing can undermine the strength of these bonds, it is our common future that we want to focus on.Just this March, President Vucic took a major step to transform future collaboration between both nations while speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington, DC. There, President Vucic declared that Serbia would soon open a chapter of the country’s Chamber of Commerce and an official state office in Jerusalem. The Serbian official flag will now fly high in these state buildings, alongside our embassy in Tel Aviv.As President Vucic stated, “That’s our way of showing respect to the Jewish people.” The decision is also a gesture of sincere gratitude for Israel’s refusal to recognize a unilateral declaration of independence issued by the authorities in our southern province of Kosovo. This is the historical, cultural, and religious core of the Serbian nation – our Jerusalem.Our troubled pasts and current challenges do make us weary of future threats to our security. As such, we consider it crucial to develop even closer defense ties. President Vucic has made it clear that Serbia plans to respond to the indefensible Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement with actions rather than words. Our country will purchase defensive weapons from Israel, and not in small order, as part of our contribution to its security.On the economic front, Serbia hopes to further expand two-way investment and pursue a free trade agreement (FTA) with Israel – one of the most developed, dynamic, and sophisticated economies in the world. At the same time, the Serbian technology industry is among the fastest growing in Europe, representing more than 10% of gross domestic product, and is ripe for expanded engagement with its Israeli counterpart.Serbia is the only country in the world that has FTAs with the EU, Russia and Turkey. Adding Israel to this list would generate additional opportunities for economic cooperation between Serbian and Israeli commercial actors.The Serbian and Jewish people know all about their shared history, which no one can negate, deny or erase. It’s now time to use this common history to modernize the partnership between our two countries. Both Serbia and our friends in Israel are committed to this effort.The writer is prime minister of the Republic of Serbia.
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