Serbia - Respecting a proven friend after Oct. 7 - opinion

A significant portion of the Israeli population, as well as Jews throughout the Diaspora, expect the trauma of October 7 and the hardships of the two-year war to have a corrective effect on Israel.

Time will tell how realistic this is, especially given clear demographic trends. What the Jewish world as a whole agrees on, however, is that legitimate criticism of the policies of the Israeli authorities during the Iron Swords war frequently and shamelessly degenerated into brutal anti-Semitism across the globe.

In the last article that Prof. Robert Solomon Wistrich wrote before his death, which was published posthumously under the title "The Anti-Zionist Mythology of the Left", he stated: "The negative symbolization of Israel and the Jews in this abject discourse is not, of course, confined to the left.

False analogies, misleading amalgams, and Orwellian doublespeak long ago replaced intellectual integrity or reasoned thought in the anti-Zionist camp — transcending older political divides. This is as true of liberals, conservatives, or proto-fascists as it is of leftists.

The relentless efforts over the last forty years to equate Zionism with racism, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, or Nazism are indeed among the more pathological symptoms of a universal pollution of contemporary political vocabulary.

It is, however, the “anti-racist” pretensions of the anti-Zionist left that make their specific betrayal of socialist values particularly repugnant and shameful."

The list of countries where Israeli tourists have experienced various types of discomfort, including physical assaults, during the last two years is too long to enumerate.

Limits on military industry trade, when Israel was in extremis, have already been documented in the Israeli media. Serbia itself initiated the idea for Israeli clubs to play their international basketball and football matches in Serbia. A single example of this benevolence is that Belgrade has already become a recognizable host to the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball club.

Serbia itself has been a victim of sanctions, and it would not occur to it to join the initiatives to have Israel expelled from the Eurovision Song Contest. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić remained during Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech at the UN General Assembly on September 26th and was criticized for this by numerous delegations who demonstratively left the hall.

In the first 8 months of the current year, the number of overnight stays by Israeli tourists in Serbia increased by an impressive 63.6 percent, reaching 73 thousand. Israel thus ranks 3rd among all visitors to Serbia arriving from outside Europe.

Immediately after the cursed attack on October 7, 2023 one of the most massive demonstrations of support for Israel was held in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Over the last four years, trade between the two countries has quadrupled, and it is expected to exceed $250 million this year.

We are currently witnessing a constellation in which the countries that most passionately initiate sanctions against Israel enjoy all trading privileges with the Jewish state. As members of the EU, they are exempt from customs duties, enjoy quotas and country of origin.

In contrast, some friendly countries like Serbia are de facto punished and are not permitted an equal position. This constitutes an unbearable absurdity at a time when memory of the difficult days of the longest war in modern Israel history is vivid. Although time in Israel is divided into before and after October 7, 2023, the rest of the world did not begin on the holiday of Simchat Torah that year.

Decades of policies undertaken by Josip Broz Tito, president-for-life of socialist Yugoslavia, were not favorable to Israel. Only just before the collapse of Yugoslavia did Serbia begin to return to its former nature. Among other things, this meant a renewed interest in the Jewish world in the Diaspora, primarily in the United States, but also in Israel itself.

Curiosity began about the fate of Yugoslav Jews during the Holocaust and about the shared suffering of the Serbian and Jewish peoples in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II.

Interest also began concerning Judaism, Sephardic culture, the Judeo-Spanish language, and the Jews who have significantly contributed to the progress of Serbia. A special place was occupied by the unique and central moments of the shared history. These were evoked in all their subtlety, yet most vividly.

The protagonists of these unique events were Prince Miloš Obrenović I and King Petar I Karađorđević, a.k.a. the Liberator, for whom the forest of the Jewish National Fund near Kibbutz Ginegar was named, rulers who rank among the most successful in both Serbian dynasties of the late modern period.

Among the most prominent and relevant events concerns the fact that the Kingdom of Serbia was the first country in the world (already on December 27, 1917) to support in writing the Balfour Declaration deserves to be highlighted, as does the contribution of Jewish soldiers to the Serbian war efforts in the Balkan wars (1912-1913), as well as in the First World War; the contribution of the progenitor of the Serbian civic music culture Josif Schlesinger (1794-1870); the participation of King Peter I in laying the cornerstone of Belgrade’s Sephardic synagogue, Bet Jisrael (1907), and a year later, on the occasion of its consecration ceremony.

Over the past year, we have witnessed unprecedented reciprocal visits at the highest level.

President Isaac Yitzhak Herzog visited Belgrade, and Foreign Minister Marko Đurić, with his excellent Hebrew, and the President of the National Assembly, Ana Brnabić, visited Israel.

These were solemn and warm occasions. And then two key events occurred, which further improved bilateral relations, and which are of great importance to the real sector, to producers, to taxpayers, and which assist in the fight against rises in the cost of living in Israel:

Serbian President Vučić and Prime Minister Netanyahu met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Among the difficult and complicated topics discussed was the decision to reach a free trade agreement between the two countries! Just a few days later, during a visit to Belgrade by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, this was further affirmed, and a decision was taken to establish a bilateral economic committee.

Finally, the anomaly of the asymmetrical attitude of various countries around the world towards Israel has been given attention; attention that will result in a clear message being conveyed. The interests of friendly countries, and of their peoples, will be heard, perceived, and finally processed in a most positive manner. This will certainly result in sustainable benefits in the relations between friendly countries.

Although Serbia has pursued a principled policy, addressing civilian suffering on all sides in this horrific war, it has faced criticism around the world for its proactive and friendly attitude towards Israel, when Israel was facing its most difficult hour.

It would be absolutely unacceptable, and would convey a destructive message, should Serbia continue to be placed in an unequal position vis-à-vis trade competitors from countries that have hysterically, cynically and without principle initiated suspensions and boycotts of Israel. Of course, Serbia is not the only country that falls into this category, but for the undersigned, it is an honorable duty and obligation to bring it to the widest possible attention.

Serbia and Israel share both common democratic values and certain opponents, especially considering their common resistance to the contemporary “woke” agenda. In this regard, one immediately thinks of Douglas Murray with his soaring rhetoric and argumentation on this subject.

However, Serbian suffering during the 20th century, especially during World War II, gave rise to a rare capacity for understanding the unique suffering of the Jewish people throughout their thousands of years of history. Above all, this has endowed the Serbs with a reverence for what was destroyed in the Holocaust, but also a recognition that it constitutes a unique and incomparable crime in the history of humanity.

This has promulgated a determined fight against denial and distortion of the Holocaust. It is no coincidence that Prof. Yehuda Bauer and Dr. Efraim Zuroff are so respected and cited by the Serbian public. Serbia’s law remedying the consequences of seizure of assets of Holocaust victims with no living legal heirs (2016) is widely considered to be the most progressive and comprehensive law of its kind.

It represents a pioneering approach and an example to be followed throughout the continent. On 24 February 2020, the National Assembly of Serbia adopted the Law on Memorial Center "Staro sajmište". It is organized as the state cultural institute for, among other duties, keeping the memory alive of victims of the Nazi concentration camps Judenlager Semlin and Anhaltelager Semlin.

This support was conveyed through the esteemed Jerusalem Post, but of no less importance were messages conveyed on the domestic Serbian scene, where sincere and subtle care for Alon has reigned. His yellow piano, which toured Serbia, will await him there.