Serbia strongly condemned Saturday the appearance on streets of Belgrade of apparent anti-Semitic posters, marking the 14th anniversary of the NATO bombing campaign to stop Serbian forces in Kosovo.
“Those who dishonor Serbia with these anti-Semitic posters will be apprehended and brought to justice,” Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told journalists.
The posters appear to suggest that Israel was behind NATO’s bombing in the spring of 1999. They show a map of Serbia and photographs of buildings destroyed by the bombardment, with a plane with the star of David — a symbol of Judaism — flying overhead and ready to drop a bomb.
The posters include the message “14 years after the bombardment, their terror continues,” and it is signed by the Serb ultranationalist organization “Kri i cast” (Blood and honor), according to pictures by the local press.
The Israeli embassy in Belgrade also denounced the posters, saying in a statement it was “aware that this incident does not reflect the attitude of Serbian society which has respected Jewish citizens throughout its history.”
NATO’s bombing of Serbia which began on March 24, 1999, and lasted 78 days, was aimed at driving Serb forces out of the breakaway province of Kosovo that were suppressing an independence movement by the ethnic Albanian majority.
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008, a move that Belgrade has never recognized.