Zuroff: Participation of Israeli planes in Knin celebration sends a bad message

BELGRADE, (Patria) - Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center from Jerusalem, Efraim Zuroff, called the participation of Israeli forces during the recent anniversary of the military operation Storm in Knin a bad message and assessed that Israel should not be involved in Balkan politics in this way.

- It is not a good message when planes of the Israeli forces participate in an event from the past in which hundreds of thousands of people were expelled from their homes. We should not be involved in such politics in the Balkans in this way, especially considering that until this year, no foreign government participated in these events in Croatia - Zuroff stated in an interview with the Belgrade-based Večernje novosti.

To the official explanation from Tel Aviv that the planes were flying as part of military cooperation between Croatia and Israel, Zuroff recalled the commercial contract for the purchase of aircraft, saying that he has no information about agreements related to military or strategic cooperation between Israel and Croatia.

- I only know that there is an agreement to sell 12 F-16 aircraft to Croatia. I cannot believe, nor accept, that participation in the commemoration of Operation Storm has anything to do with military and strategic cooperation, nor should it - Zuroff assessed.

He hopes that the participation of Israeli officials at the gathering in Knin will not disrupt the good relations between Serbia and Israel.

When reminded that, in addition to representatives of Israel, officials from the USA were also present in Knin, and asked: "Is this a signal that Europe and the world are preparing to forgive Croatia for Storm?", Zurof replied that "at this moment it looks like that". "But I hope that will not happen after all. It should not, nor should it happen.".

Commenting on the attitude towards Ustaše ideology and the crimes of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in today's Croatia, Zuroff says that this is "a question for the current Croatian leaders, and especially President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović".

- Many people in Croatia are unequivocally anti-fascists, but the problem is that there are still many Croats who view Ustaše ideology positively - Zuroff assessed.

He suggested that a film should be made about Jasenovac and Ustaše crimes, explaining why there is not much information in world historiography about the scale of Ustaše atrocities in that camp.

- A film for the general public should be made about the Jasenovac concentration camp, because people in the West have not even had the opportunity to read much about the events in Jasenovac during the NDH. The problem is also that the camp was liberated by Yugoslav partisans, not Allied soldiers, all victims were from Yugoslavia, and most of the survivors' memories, as well as all research, were then in Serbian-Croatian, and there is almost none in English - said this Israeli Nazi hunter.

He also pointed out the disagreement between Serbs and Croats regarding the number of victims, emphasizing that this "further complicates the attempt for people outside the Balkans to comprehend the scale of the Jasenovac crimes".

Zuroff also said that Austria and Germany are two countries where Nazi war criminals from World War II are still mostly hiding, and that Germany is "the only country that is still working hard on the criminal prosecution of Nazi war criminals".