Israel's ties with Kosovo: What new opportunities await?
Kosovo had refused to recognize the Jewish state, while Israel refused to recognize Kosovo’s independence. Trump changed that.
By JPOST EDITORIALForeign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi is seen with the agreement to form diplomatic ties with Kosovo in front of the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, on February 1, 2021.(photo credit: FOREIGN MINISTRY)
We welcome the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the State of Israel and the Republic of Kosovo, signed on Monday in a virtual ceremony by Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and his Kosovar counterpart, Meliza Haradinaj-Stublla. The historic move represented the first time that a bilateral relations agreement was signed online, which required prior approval from the Justice Ministry.“Recognition by Israel is one of the greatest achievements for Kosovo, coming at a key moment for us, thanks to the United States of America, our common and eternal ally,” read a Kosovar Foreign Ministry statement issued in Pristina, the country’s capital. “It is a perpetuation of the long friendship between our peoples.”The agreement on the normalization of relations between the two countries was announced on September 4 as part of the wider agreement between Kosovo and Serbia mediated by US president Donald Trump’s administration. Under the deal, Israel recognizes Kosovo as a country, Kosovo will open an embassy in Jerusalem in July and Serbia will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the capital by the summer of 2021.Until the agreement, Kosovo had refused to recognize the Jewish state, while Israel refused to recognize Kosovo’s independence. All this changed when Trump and the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia signed a bilateral agreement in the White House.If the embassy openings go ahead, Kosovo would be the first country with a Muslim majority – and the third overall, after the US and Guatemala – to have a Jerusalem-based embassy, while Serbia would be the first European country to open an embassy in Israel’s capital.Ambassador Gary Koren, the deputy director general for Euro-Asia affairs at the Foreign Ministry, said US President Joe Biden’s administration supports the establishment of diplomatic ties between Israel and Kosovo.The Foreign Ministry said it would soon name a Jerusalem-based ambassador to be in charge of relations between the countries, because there is no plan for Israel to open an embassy in Pristina at this time.The ministry noted that there is great potential for bilateral cooperation, inter alia, in water, agriculture and the battle against coronavirus.Kosovo, whose ethnic Albanian-majority population of some 1.9 million are mostly Muslims, declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nine years after a NATO-led bombing campaign to curb a war triggered by years of repressive Serbian rule and ethnic cleansing.It has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 98 of the 193 UN member states, but has not been accepted into the UN because of strong Russian and Chinese opposition to its membership.Although Israel and Kosovo have not had diplomatic ties until now, the two countries have historically had good relations, and the Israeli government dispatched massive humanitarian aid to Kosovo during and after its 1998-99 war with Slobodan Milosevic’s regime.There are some 80 Jewish families living in Kosovo today, according to Ruzhdi Shkodra, president of the BET Israel Jewish Community, with most of them living in the capital, Pristina, and three families living in the historic city of Prizen.According to the Jewish Heritage Europe website, small numbers of Jews fleeing Europe arrived in what is known today as Kosovo in the Middle Ages, when the territory was part of Serbia, and, after 1455, the Ottoman Empire. They were joined by Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal in the late fifteenth century. By the mid-18th century about 1,000 Jews lived in the territory, and as many as 1,750 on the eve of World War I.It is our fervent hope that the normalization of relations between Israel and Muslim states mediated by the Trump administration will continue under the Biden administration. First there were last year’s Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, soon followed by deals with Sudan and Morocco, which have yet to be officially formalized.Under Biden’s presidency, we are optimistic that sufficient progress can be made to get other Muslim and Arab states – especially Saudi Arabia – to join the increasing number of countries normalizing relations with Israel. This is the way to secure the best future for all people. It is in everyone’s interest.
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