IIPE Centre for Neighbouring and Mediterranean countries (CNMC) organised online round table ”Serbian-Israeli relations − History and perspectives”. The round table was officially opened by Professor Branislav Đorđević, IIPE Director. Dr Selena Orly, Lecturer at Bar Ilan University was behind idea of organising the event and contributed to establishing cooperation of IIPE with BESA center. The speakers were Vladimir Ajzenhamer, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Security Studies, University of Belgrade, Rabbi Michael Freund, Founder and President of the Israel Serbia Friendship Association and Former Adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Veteran Journalist of The Jerusalem Post, Professor Darko Tanasković, Serbian leading orientalist scholar and former ambassador, and Mr Aleksandar Nikolić, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Serbia to the State of Israel. Speakers talked about history of bilateral relations offering many interesting details, but also dealt with open issues from those related to the Israeli recognition of the self-proclaimed Kosovo to Serbian stance on Israeli related challenges in international relations. Finally opportunities for improvement of economic and political relations were examined. Unlike Freund who claims that many things may change, Ambassador Dan Oryan of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs participated in discussion and tackled bilateral controversies. Oryan stated that “The question of recognition is not going to change”. Head of the CNMC dr Slobodan Janković hosted the round table, which represents the first step in further cooperation between IIPE and the Israeli Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University.
