Byzantine Blog

Arie Livne: Serbs Will Never Give Up

World Jewish Congress (WJC) Special Emissary to the Yugoslav Successor States Arie Livne (86) has stated that the issue of Kosovo province is not a unique case, underscoring that granting independence to the Serbian province would be “a major injustice”.

The Albanians may make up the majority of the current population in Kosovo, but they are an ethnic minority in Serbia, Livne said in an interview published by the Banja Luka daily Press RS. Granting independence to Kosovo would constitute a major injustice and would be rather dangerous, because the Basque Country, Corsica, South Tyrol, Northern Ireland would request the same, said Mr Livne.

Arie Livne, who represents the Serbian Republic (Republika Srpska, the Serbian republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina) in Israel, believes that the Albanians should be given the rights due to an ethnic minority, but that Serbia will never give up a part of its territory and the Serbs will never accept or recognize independence of their southern Kosovo province.

He believes that the West is at war with Islam and that they want to ingratiate themselves to the Muslims and demonstrate, over the Serbian back, that they are fighting against terrorism and not against Islam.

A Man of Honor and a Cherished Friend

Arie Livne was born in 1921 in Serbia and emigrated to Israel in 1956. He worked at the Jewish agency for 40 years — an institution which by strengthening ties between the Jewish Diaspora and Israel largely contributed to the creation of the present day Jewish state.

Mr. Livne has participated in all activities aimed at strengthening ties between Serbia and Israel. He used his numerous international contacts to help Serbia achieve its international interests and in 1999 he lobbied for the termination of bombing of Serbia.

As someone who has been personally devastated by the Holocaust (his mother was murdered at notorious Auschwitz), Mr Livne has participated at each of the Jasenovac conferences, taking an active role in bringing awareness about the less-known genocide Croat Ustashi and Muslim Nazis have committed over the Serbs, Jews and Roma on the territory of former Yugoslavia during the WWII.

Mr Livne was awarded the Order of Honor of Republika Srpska of First Degree for his merits in helping the Serbian people, and honored by the state of Serbia for his merits in strengthening friendly ties between the Jewish and Serbian people, and for the contribution to mutual respect and cooperation between Serbia and Israel.