Nadene Goldfoot
Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a partially-recognised state and disputed territory in Southeastern Europe. On 17 February 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia. It has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 98 UN member states. 
The red triangle is Kosovo.
Kosovo has made peace with Israel. We welcome the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the State of Israel and the Republic of Kosovo, signed on yesterday, February 1, 2021.
The agreement on the normalization of relations between the two countries was announced on September 4 as part of the wider agreement between Kosovo and Serbia mediated by US president Donald Trump’s administration.
Under the deal, Israel recognizes Kosovo as a country. Kosovo will open an embassy in Jerusalem in July and Serbia will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the capital by the summer of 2021.
In 2011, Kosovo was the 40th largest Muslim majority country. It had a population of 2,100,000 with a 90% majority of Sunni Muslims.
A later date shows Kosovo with a population of 1,907,592 with 95.6 being Muslims which is 0.1% of the world population. 2020 shows their population to be 1.81 million.
Serbia has a population of 7,001,444 with 3.1% Muslims.
There are some 80 Jewish families living in Kosovo today, according to Ruzhdi Shkodra, president of the BET Israel Jewish Community, with most of them living in the capital, Pristina, and three families living in the historic city of Prizen.
Serbia is not happy about Kosovo and Israel having a peace agreement. They say it will impact ties. Kosovo was a former Serbian province going rogue as a separate state now. That means a loss of land for the Serbians. Serbia and Kosovo had a war over this in 1990.
The Kosovo War was waged in the Serbian province of Kosovo from 1998 to 1999. Ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo faced the pressure of Serbs fighting for control of the region. ... The president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, refused to recognize the rights of the majority because Kosovo was an area sacred to the Serbs.
Serbian cultural and religious sites in Kosovo were systematically vandalized and destroyed over several historical periods, during the Ottoman rule, World War I, World War II, Yugoslav communist rule, Kosovo War and 2004 unrest.
According to the International Center for Transitional Justice, 155 Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries were destroyed by Kosovo Albanians between June 1999 and March 2004. The Medieval Monuments in Kosovo, founded by the Nemanjić dynasty, is a combined World Heritage Site consisting of four Serbian Orthodox Christian churches and monasteries. In 2006, the property was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
The prominence of Kosovo in the Serb national psyche is actually a relatively recent invention created by Serb Minister Pasic to justify Serb conquest of Kosovo in 1912.
Pasic´ (Serb Prime Minister) further argued that due to the concentration of Serbian religious monuments in Metohija (an overwhelmingly demographically Albanian part of Kosovo), this region had been a ‘Holy Land of the Serbian People . . . since time immemorial’ [oduvek] Karadzic´, Njegos and Garasanin all failed to make a ‘religious’ claim on any part of the present-day Kosovo.Thus, it does appear that the ‘Holy Land of the Serbian People’ was a relatively recently invented tradition, probably formulated in the hope of mobilizing Christian solidarity from the Western Powers against the predominantly Muslim Albanians. The use of the ‘religious’ argument enables Pasic´ to claim for Serbia a part of present-day Kosovo that was clearly demographically Albanian.
Kosovo’s parliament declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nine years after NATO conducted a 78-day airstrike campaign against Serbia to stop a bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Albania is the 37th largest Muslim majority country and had a population of 3,170,048 in 2011. They were 70% Muslim Sunnis.
Kosovo has since been recognized by much of the Western world, but its rejection by Serbia’s key allies, Russia and China, has locked it out of the United Nations. Until Monday, Israel was another key holdout on Belgrade’s side.
It's beneficial to have as many Muslim countries at peace with Israel as possible. All this time since 1948, Israel has been the one locked out of everything and the target of attacks and wars by Muslims. One reason Israel avoided recognizing Kosovo as a state before was that it did not want to support a unilateral declaration of statehood — which Jerusalem feared could create a dangerous precedent followed by the Palestinians.
In exchange for Israel's recognition, Kosovo recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel [Amir Cohen/Reuters] They are the first Muslim majority country to do so.
The new White House administration headed by President Joe Biden has said it will keep the US embassy in Israel in Jerusalem, and continue to recognise the city as Israel’s capital. The USA had not done this under Obama or other presidents, though they all spoke about it. Donald Trump acted and moved the USA embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Under Trump, the US also brokered a number of deals to establish diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates 31st largest Muslim population and neighbor of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain #42 largest, Morocco #10 largest and Sudan #8 largest Muslim majority country.
Then again, Serbia used to be in my own lifetime, named Yugoslavia. In medieval Serbia, we have no knowledge of Jews living there, but in Yugoslavia, Jews lived there since Roman times. A synagogue inscription was found in Stobi and relics at Salona. Serbia re-established her independence in the 19th century.
Yugoslavia, the kingdom, was formed on 1 December 1918. Serbia's royal family, the Karadjordjevics, became that of the new country, which was officially called the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes until 1929 - when it became Yugoslavia. The country was carved up.
Update 2/5/2021: Kosovo has taken a bold additional step – they have agreed to open their embassy in Jerusalem, recognizing the city as Israel’s capital! This is only the third nation to do so – joining the United States and Guatemala – and the first Islamic country.
Resource:
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/israels-ties-with-kosovo-what-new-opportunities-await-657476
https://www.timesofisrael.com/serbia-not-happy-with-israels-recognition-of-kosovo-says-it-will-impact-ties/
https://borgenproject.org/the-kosovo-war/#:~:text=The%20Kosovo%20War%20was%20waged,for%20control%20of%20the%20region.&text=The%20president%20of%20Serbia%2C%20Slobodan,area%20sacred%20to%20the%20Serbs.
https://www.quora.com/Is-Kosovo-for-Serbs-really-the-sacred-land-like-Israel-is-for-Jews
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_Serbian_heritage_in_Kosovo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/yugoslavia_01.shtml
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