VIENNA – Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), once considered “the Jerusalem of the Balkans,” reiterated its invitation to host a high-level meeting of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), which was slated to take place next week.
The initial invitation aimed at recovering the image of Sarajevo and BiH as a place of tolerance of peaceful coexistence between religions after the explosion of antisemitism in the Muslim parts of the multi-ethnic confederation following the massacres of October 7.
BiH is also considered a stronghold of the radical and antisemitic Muslim Brotherhood movement in the Balkans and Europe.
However, after the local press recently publicized the planned rabbinical conference, presenting it as a solidarity event with the State of Israel, local authorities caved to growing pressure and threats to cancel the event.
The hotel, in which the three-day meeting was to take place, informed the CER that it could not host the event due to “security reasons.” Some hours earlier, the city of Sarajevo canceled the gala dinner it had planned for the gathering’s participants.
BiH minister opposes rabbinical gathering
BiH’s Federal Labor and Social Policy Minister Adnan Delic openly opposed the rabbinical gathering in Sarajevo.
In an official statement, the Muslim minister said: “As a person living in BiH, as someone who believes in the values of truth, justice, and the dignity of every human being, I express my strongest protest against the announcement of the European Conference of Rabbis to be held in Sarajevo from June 16 to 18.
“It is illogical, deeply unacceptable, and even morally offensive that in Sarajevo – a city that has survived the longest siege in modern European history, a city where children have been killed, hospitals have been targeted, and markets have been shelled – a gathering will be organized from which support will be sent to the occupier [Israel] who, every day, in front of the eyes of the whole world commits genocide against the innocent population of Gaza.”
Delic added: “The conference announced as a ‘message of peace’ is essentially an attempt to send a message of legitimization of a genocidal entity and its shameful acts of crimes against humanity from Sarajevo, a symbol of resistance, survival, and human endurance,” adding, “This is absolutely contrary to everything Sarajevo is and has stood for throughout history”.
Multiple comments published on social networks explicitly advocated physical violence against Jewish attendees of the event using threats such as “They should be beaten”; and even invoking Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated the Austrian Crown Prince in Sarajevo in the summer 1914 – leading to the outbreak of World War I – as a model for assassinating rabbis.
'Sarajevo clearly and responsibly sends a message'
The former Grand Mufti of BiH, Mustafa Ceric, declared that Sarajevo is clearly and responsibly sending the message that it will not be a platform for justifying war crimes against Palestinian civilians.
He stated that gathering of the European Rabbis in Sarajevo could have had full moral meaning only if its tenure “raises a clear, principled and humanistic voice for an immediate end to the genocide in Gaza, for the cessation of the killing of civilians and the use of hunger as a method of warfare, for a peace agreement and the release of all prisoners on both sides, for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza so that the devastated territory can be restored for normal human life.”
'We have been made unwelcome'
Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, reacted:
“The CER’s biannual Standing Committee meeting was due to be held at the Swisshotel in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, next week. Chief rabbis from all over Europe, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, were due to convene to discuss the most pressing issues facing European Jewish life today and matters of freedom of religion or belief. Shockingly, we have been made unwelcome, and this last-minute, ministerial boycott of Jewish European citizens, dedicated to purely to promoting Jewish life in Europe and furthering dialogue and democracy across the continent, is disgraceful.”
“CER events foster dialogue, boost interfaith activity, and promote public engagement. It is Sarajevo’s loss. We are delighted that the Bavarian Government will support our event’s relocation to Munich, and we, as an organization, will continue unfazed to be engaged in supporting the Jewish communities of Europe.”
He added: “However, a wider question looms. This decision to block a European-Jewish conference on European soil is not only alarming, but also revealing. It is a clear violation of EU commitments and values (The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Article 10 and 22, The European Council Declaration on Antisemitism, 2020). Bosnia and Herzegovina should certainly be canceled and barred from accession to the European Union following this disgraceful castigation of a European faith group.
“Sarajevo has proclaimed itself a ‘city of openness and tolerance’ for anyone but Jews.”