'An affinity for Israel': The ongoing story of Serbo-Israeli relations

Sitting peacefully, deep in the Israeli countryside, are two Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund forests named after Serbian and Yugoslav monarchs of the past.

The history of Jews in the Balkan region dates back some 2,000 years since the Roman dispersion of Jews across Europe, and in more modern times, Israel has forged ties with the nations that have emerged since the breakup of Yugoslavia. The largest of those nations is Serbia, where Israel has developed excellent diplomatic and growing trade ties.

Honorary consul of Serbia to Israel Aleksandar Nikolic is a Belgrade-born descendant of Sephardi Jews who survived Bergen-Belsen. He graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and previously served on the executive board of the Federation of the Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia.

He sat down with The Jerusalem Post to discuss the history of Serbo-Israeli relations and the current status of ongoing cooperative successes.

Since the modern inception of the idea of Jewish statehood and the birth of Zionism, the Serbs have always proposed the notion that the Jewish people should be their own masters with their own land.

On 2 November 1917, as World War I raged throughout Europe and the Middle East, the British were attempting to solve the question of Jewish statehood, when Lord Balfour proposed his own solution in the Balfour Declaration. The Serbian delegation to the United States sent Serb Army captain and later Jewish community leader Dr. David Albala a letter in which it affirmed Serbia’s support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

“Serbia was the first country worldwide to support the Balfour Declaration in December 1917, immediately, which is a unique position,” Nikolic told the Post. “It is with special pride that I always recall this. In the letter of support signed by Milenko Radomar Vesnic, head of the Serbian War Mission to Washington, DC, it was written in anticipation of the future ‘free Israel.’ It was an unbelievable anticipation by the Serbs.”

Moving forward a century, in February 2016, Serbia enacted The Law on Removal of the Consequences Regarding the Seizing of the Holocaust Survivors’ Property Without Living Legal Heirs to address heirless and unclaimed Jewish property. As well as financial reparations to Jewish communities in the case of unclaimed property, Holocaust survivors and their heirs have the opportunity to obtain any of their property that will be returned to the Serbian Jewish communities. In addition, the distribution of revenues from compensation and restitution will support Holocaust survivors, the social welfare of Jews living in Serbia, Holocaust research, commemoration, and education, and sustaining Jewish communities and religious and cultural activities. At least 20% of those revenues in the first decade will be directed to assist Serbian Holocaust survivors now living in Serbia or abroad.

“This law puts Serbia as an example to the rest of Europe, as described by various Jewish international organizations,” Nikolic proudly lauded. “Although Serbs were among the major victims of Nazi Germany, they saw this obligation to correct a criminal injustice and remember the Jewish suffering. The Serbian Jewish community was very supportive of this.

“When the National Assembly of Serbia voted to implement the law, there were 0 votes against it,” Nikolic stated. “Everyone voted in favor.”

Nikolic was also enthusiastic about Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s relationship with the Jewish world, Israel, and the Serb Jewish community. Vucic, in the past month, has held phone conversations with President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At the same time, a senior AIPAC delegation, headed by AIPAC president Michael Tuchin, visited Belgrade.

“President Vucic flew a yellow flag with the Shield [Star] of David from the Presidential Palace just prior to the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Yad Vashem in 2020. Everybody was moved by this gesture.”

Honorary consul speaks on personal experiences 

Nikolic expanded on the president’s own personal experiences and how they have furthered understanding of Jewish suffering during the Holocaust, a unique historical event not to be compared.

“The president’s family members were targets of genocide during World War II as Serbian victims of the Ustasa regime of the Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi Germany satellite. This kind of understanding of Jewish suffering, together with the Roma people, is very evocative. You are unlikely to find a European leader with that kind of commitment to Holocaust remembrance because it happened together at the same time. The victims were also anti-fascist Croats and members of other ethnic groups and religions who resisted the perpetrators.”

In what was described by Nikolic as “crucially important,” a second law was passed in February 2020 by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia to create the “Memorial Center Staro Sajmiste” and permanently preserve the site, formerly a Nazi concentration camp and the site of mass murder. The new Memorial Center was established in 2022 and focuses on restoration and organizational development. The role of the Genocide Victims’ Museum in Belgrade is essential here, while First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic is known for his active support in the remembrance of the resistance movement in Yugoslavia during World War II, thus fighting both history revision and Holocaust distortion.

“If there is a country in the world that has globally suffered from one-sided, manipulative, and malicious global media reports throughout decades, it is the state of the Jewish people. This is why the Serbs expect deeper understanding from the Israelis,” Nikolic explained as he delved into Serbia’s recent history and the ongoing matter of Kosovar independence.

“Kosovo is the cradle of Serbian spirituality, history, and identity. Many of the most central medieval Serbian Christian Orthodox monasteries are there. For many years, Serbs tried to explain that Kosovo is their Jerusalem from the point of spirituality, history, and identity. For the Israelis to understand what Kosovo means to Serbs, think of it as the Galilee or the northern Negev. Why? These areas are, obviously, parts of Israel, but they have very complex demographic situations and certain tendencies.

“It is not without reason that Ariel Sharon, who was foreign minister at the time, opposed the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, and former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman opposed Kosovo’s bid for independence in 2008.”

Israel and Serbia have also come on leaps and bounds in terms of collaborations in the fields of innovation, investments, and trade, Nikolic explained.

“There are three major aspects of economy and trade cooperation,” supported by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Nikolic reflected when asked about modern relations between the State of Israel and the Republic of Serbia.

“In the field of science, networking of the innovation ecosystems between Serbian science and technology parks and start-ups and Israeli accelerators and innovation authorities has seen massive growth,” Nikolic explained. “Israeli symbols of the Start-Up Nation, such as Start-Up Nation Central in Tel Aviv or Tech7 in Beersheba, have been involved with Serbia. Besides, we have many postdoctoral students at the most prestigious [Israeli] science and academy institutions, such as the Weizmann Institute of Science and Ben-Gurion University.”

“The second aspect is fostering investments in Serbia,” Nikolic said. “It gives me great pleasure that, since 2000, almost $3 billion have been invested in Serbia, particularly in Serbia real estate and the shopping mall sector, by Israeli companies, [with] a particular Israeli presence in the field of renewable energy (Enlight and Big Mega). Our wind-power sector enjoyed important investment from Israeli companies. Renewable energy is very important to Serbia.”

Companies such as Beit Shemesh Engines; Tigar tires, which is part of Michelin; and Philip Morris tobacco are very best examples of growing economy and trade cooperation between the countries.Tourism has also been a fast-growing sector between the two countries in the 21st century, especially the Belgrade city break.

“Starting in 2016, we reached 13 weekly direct flights between Ben-Gurion Airport and Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade. We had 34,000 visitors only to the capital, Belgrade, on a quarterly basis, which was really promising. Israelis became one of our leading foreign tourists. But, unfortunately, we all suffered from COVID-19, and since then, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.”

Anyhow, the arrival of the Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia, Miroljub Petrovic, during the war promises even stronger bilateral ties in all fields.

EXPO 2027 is a specialized exposition to be held in 2027 in Belgrade, Serbia. It is scheduled to begin on 15 May 2027 and close on 15 August 2027 and will mark the first time that a world exposition will be held in the former Yugoslavia. Israel supported Serbia’s bid, which will include major investment, including a whole new fair center to replace the old one.

“The major topics of EXPO 2027 will be sports and music. Serbs are very prominent in sports, such as tennis star Novak Djokovic and basketball NBA MVP Nikola Jokic,” Nikolic told the Post. 

“International support was important to Serbia, including Israeli support, and it was a great chance for Serbia to present its best self to the watching world. Israeli excellence in sports innovations, companies such as HYPE and Colosseum, will definitively contribute to this unique and grand event we’re proud of.”

In a reciprocal manner, Serbia has also stepped up and offered its sporting facilities to help out its Israeli compatriots in a sign of comradeship during the current Gaza war.

“Unfortunately, during this tragic war, both Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem in basketball are playing their home matches in European competition in Serbia,” Nikolic stated. “The Israeli security services would never consider playing matches in a country that was considered unsafe and not capable of assuring security.”

Returning to the thought of those KKL-JNF forests, Nikolic is proud of his country’s contribution to Israeli history, stating: “It makes us very proud that we are among the few nations with two JNF forests in Israel officially named after our rulers. The first is named after King Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, near Kibbutz Sha’ar Ha’amakim, which was established by immigrants from Yugoslavia and Romania. His son King Peter II, in exile, visited the kibbutz twice. The other one is King Peter I Karadjordjevic Forest near Kibbutz Ginegar.”