The president of the SNSD, Milorad Dodik, said that his visit to Israel, during which he will meet with the highest Israeli officials, will be another confirmation of the good cooperation and friendship between Republika Srpska and the State of Israel.
- At the invitation of the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs, on Monday, January 26, I will attend a conference dedicated to the fight against antisemitism, and I will also meet with many people from the Jewish and democratic world who will be participants at this conference – Dodik said.
Dodik stated that on Thursday, January 29, he will be awarded a prize by the Israeli parliament for achieved cooperation.
He emphasized that Republika Srpska has a deep understanding that a horrific crime was committed in Israel on October 7, 2023, when members of the terrorist organization Hamas killed 1,400 Israeli citizens, and that he believes Israel had the right to defend its people and its territory.
- In that regard, our policy remains unchanged, although we are aware that we live in an environment in which political Sarajevo is maximally anti-Jewish, which it has demonstrated through a series of actions in the past – from banning a conference of rabbis, to throwing stones at Jewish tourists, to the recent posting of posters in Sarajevo featuring a wanted notice for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – Dodik said.
In addition, Dodik recalled that the Israeli Embassy was not allowed to screen a documentary film in Sarajevo about the suffering in Israel on October 7, 2023, but that it was ensured the film would be shown in East Sarajevo.
- All of this shows that we continuously, without hesitation, absolutely understand what is happening. Of course, one should always mourn innocent victims, but the terrorist organization Hamas attempted to use the local population as a shield – Dodik said.
He added that he was pleased that a cessation of hostilities had occurred, noting that credit for this belongs to the State of Israel, but also significantly and decisively to U.S. President Donald Trump.
- Trump’s initiative to form a Peace Committee for Gaza shows his intention to do everything possible to repair the consequences of the conflict as quickly as possible and to ensure the normalization of life – Dodik said.
He stressed that Israel as a state has been fighting for decades for its survival and for the protection of the people’s right to self-determination.
- Israel does not deny the fact that Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority exist there. In the past, Israel accepted talks about forming a Palestinian state in that area, but the problem of territorial delineation remained. Therefore, there are many parallels and points of contact with our own people – Dodik said.
He recalled that the Serbian people suffered in the Second World War in the same way as the Jewish people – in camps, execution sites, and pits.
- There was suffering in almost every Serb village, where the Ustaše killed Serbs and committed genocide against the Serb people. Only the Nazis were capable of such crimes. That tragic suffering connected the Serbian and Jewish peoples – Dodik said.
He emphasized that, on the other hand, the Jewish state is fighting for its sovereignty, and Republika Srpska is doing the same.
- In almost identical circumstances, we too have a problem with political Islam, which increasingly appears in militant form, at a time when Sarajevo could count on a liberal West that from the very beginning placed the blame on the Serbs, claiming that we were the ones who had done something wrong – Dodik said.
He recalled that they previously supported Alija Izetbegović, who authored the Islamic Declaration and called for the destruction of Yugoslavia.
Source: RTRS
