KOVAČEVIĆ: CANCELLATION OF EUROPEAN RABBIS' CONFERENCE IN SO-CALLED EUROPEAN JERUSALEM REFLECTS IMAGE OF WHAT SARAJEVO WOULD LIKE REAL JERUSALEM TO BE

EAST SARAJEVO, JUNE 13 /SRNA/ – The cancellation of the European Rabbis’ Conference in the so-called European Jerusalem reflects the image of what Sarajevo would like the real Jerusalem to look like, said Radovan Kovačević, Serb delegate in the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly.

Kovačević pointed out that Sarajevo is often pretentiously called the "European Jerusalem", presumably because, besides mosques, it also has a few Orthodox and Catholic churches, as well as one synagogue. "It is worth noting that Sarajevo once did have a certain degree of interfaith and interethnic harmony and coexistence. However, the reality today is that the synagogue has been empty since World War II and the Holocaust, while Christian churches have been empty since the last civil war, during which Sarajevo was almost completely ethnically cleansed," Kovačević emphasized. The recent scandal involving the withdrawal of hospitality for the European Rabbis’ Conference, along with a wave of antisemitic comments and insults directed at the State of Israel, Kovačević said, has only fully exposed what Sarajevo has become today – a city where decisions that led to civil and religious conflict are officially celebrated, and the agreement that ended the war is referred to as a straitjacket. "That’s why the cancellation of the European Rabbis’ Conference in the so-called European Jerusalem is precisely an expression of how some would like the real Jerusalem to look," Kovačević posted on the social network X.