Jews and Albanians share a history of suffering and persecution. Albanian leaders have paid tribute to Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust, visiting the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem and praying before the Eternal Flame. Israel should honor the victims of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo by recognizing its independence and establishing diplomatic relations.In the 1990s, 10,000 Kosovo Albanians died and about one million were displaced as a result of Serbia’s aggression. Targeting Albanians because of their ethnicity meets the definition of genocide in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Convention was unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948 to prevent what happened to the Jews of Europe from happening elsewhere.

Kosovo might not exist if not for the worldwide Jewish community, which played a critical role opposing Serbia’s insidious plan to deport ethnic Albanian population in order to change Kosovo’s demography. Appeals by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and other Jewish leaders led to NATO’s intervention in 1999, which prevented the escalation of genocide against Kosovo Albanians, liberated Kosovo from Serbia’s tyranny and put Kosovo on the path to independence.After nearly a decade of stewardship by the UN, Kosovo declared its independence on February 17, 2008. The legality of this decision was upheld by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). To date, 111 countries have recognized Kosovo and established diplomatic relations, including the United States and 24 EU member states.However, Israel is conspicuously absent from this list of recognizers. Israel’s recognition of Kosovo would affirm its commitment to justice and ethics in international relations. Recognition would have practical benefits, boosting peace building and reconciliation in Kosovo, Europe’s newest state that still struggles to recover from Serbia’s aggression.The Serbian government deployed its military, police, and paramilitary forces in the 1990s. It shut democratic institutions of self-rule. Peaceful pro-democracy protesters were beaten, jailed, and killed. Serbia banned Albanian language media and education. It fired physicians and teachers. Villages were burned. Elderly, women and children were executed.Serbia’s legacy is found in mass graves, as well as in many individual stories of suffering. The International Criminal Tribunal, modeled on the Nuremberg Trials, convicted Serbian officials of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

(Source: Jpost.com)