European rabbis cancel Sarajevo meeting citing political pressure
SARAJEVO - Organisers of a conference for Orthodox Jewish Rabbis in Bosnia's capital Sarajevo have moved it to another country, citing political pressure and a hotel's decision to cancel a mass booking.
The Conference of European Rabbis (CER), which represents more than 1,000 mainstream Orthodox Jewish communities, was due to hold its biannual standing committee meeting next week in Bosnia to discuss issues facing Jews in Europe and religious freedom.
The event faced a backlash in Muslim-majority Sarajevo after local media reported that the rabbis would pledge their support to Israel in the war in Gaza.
"We have been made unwelcome," the CER's Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt said in a statement, confirming the Sarajevo meeting was off and calling its treatment "disgraceful".
The CER moved the conference to Munich, where it is based.
Jakob Finci, president of Bosnia's Jewish Community, also said the hotel had cancelled the booking. The hotel did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
CER has no formal link to the state of Israel.
Residents of Sarajevo, where about 11,000 people were killed during a 1992-1995 siege by Bosnian Serb forces, are sympathetic to the plight of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
"We must not allow that Sarajevo be the stage from which the genocide will be justified," Adnan Delic, the regional labour and social policy minister, wrote in a Facebook post, urging the organisers to cancel the meeting and authorities to ban it.
Israel denies carrying out genocide in Gaza.
Many Jews worry about a surge of antisemitism since the Gaza war began. REUTERS
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