DODIK: SOME OF THE UPCOMING EUROPEAN RABBIS' GATHERINGS SHOULD BE HELD IN BANJA LUKA

BANJA LUKA, JUNE 13 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik invited the organizers of the European Rabbis' Conference to hold some of their upcoming gatherings in Banja Luka, with full support and security guaranteed by the Government and other institutions of Republika Srpska.

"Let us send a clear message together that there is no place for hatred and radicalism in Europe, and unlike Sarajevo, which embraces different values, we live true European ones. Dear rabbis, it will be an honor and a pleasure to host you and to contribute to your work and mission as much as we can," Dodik wrote on X.

Dodik stated that throughout all previous years, he has never remained silent nor sought reasons to avoid speaking, consistently, and persistently about the crimes committed against the Jewish people, whether during the Holocaust or in other instances of suffering and persecution throughout history, up to the present day.

“Today, unfortunately, we are witnessing a new attempt at discrimination, hatred, and conspiratorial anti-Semitism, taken almost literally from the handbook of the perpetrators of the Holocaust,” Dodik pointed out.

He added that the Sarajevo media, the Islamic Community, and Muslim politicians from the Federation have jointly acted to prevent and discredit the regular gathering of the European Rabbis' Conference — the umbrella organization that oversees the religious life of Jews in Europe and addresses the issues of local communities.

Dodik stated that the event, planned to be held in Sarajevo, was canceled at the last moment based on false accusations that its purpose was to humiliate the city and the Bosniak people. He emphasized that, for them, it seems to be an unbearable insult that members of the Jewish people move freely and visibly in an ethnically cleansed Sarajevo.

“We Serbs have also survived the same persecutions, by the same perpetrators, as our brotherly Jewish people. That is why we want to build and preserve the best relations and cooperation — both today and in the future — because the past has connected us with unbreakable bonds,” Dodik stated.