Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met on Tuesday with his Albanian counterpart, Igli Hasani, at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Hasani is in Israel to attend the international Ministerial Conference on Combating Antisemitism, led by Sa’ar as part of Israel’s presidency of the IRHA (the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance).

Sa’ar expressed appreciation for Albania’s support for Israel in the wake of the October 7 massacre and for its participation in the conference. In addition, Saar referred to Albania’s rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, emphasizing: “We will never forget it.”

Albania, a small country located in the Balkans in southeastern Europe, was the only Nazi-occupied country in Europe with more Jews after the Holocaust than before. Although the Nazis occuped Albania from September 1943 until November 1944, when they were pushed out by local communist partisans, almost 2,000 Jews fled to Albania during the war, where they were largely protected by the locals, who sheltered them in their villages or transported that to Adriatic ports from where they fled to Italy. Other Jews joined resistance movements throughout the country.

Approximately 600 Jews were killed in Axis-occupied Albania during the Holocaust. In Albania proper, five Jews from the same family were killed by the Germans, the only native Jews to be killed there over the course of the war. Albania-proper emerged from the war with a population of Jews eleven times greater than at the beginning, numbering around 1,800. Most Jews later emigrated to Israel.

Albania is Europe’s only Muslim-majority country, although its government is secular and it is ranked among the least religious countries in the world [partially due to decades of religious persecution during its Communist years]. It is also the poorest country in the region.

Minister Hasani wrote about his meeting with Sa’ar: “Had a productive exchange with my Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa’ar. Albania has historically stood firmly against all forms of antisemitism and opposes any expression of intolerance or prejudice against Jewish people.”

“We also discussed opportunities to enhance cooperation and reaffirmed the positive bilateral relations between our two countries.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)