Bosnian museum housing medieval Sarajevo Haggadah accuses Israel of 'genocide,' donates proceeds to 'the people of Palestine'

The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which houses the medieval Sarajevo Haggadah, says it will donate proceeds associated with the Haggadah to “the people of Palestine,” and that it won’t be complicit in Israel’s “genocide.”

In an announcement written by the director of the museum on its website, Dr.sci. Mirsad Sijarić, the museum would “donate the income from the sale of the publication – ‘Sarajevo Haggadah – Art and History’ – as well as the income from tickets to see the Sarajevo Haggadah, for helping Palestine.”

The director further stated that Palestinians “suffer systematic, calculated and cold-blooded terror, directly by the state of Israel, and indirectly by all those who support and/or justify it in its shameless actions.”

Dating to the mid-14th century, the Sarajevo Haggadah is believed to originate from the Iberian Peninsula.

It received its name after being acquired in 1894 by the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in the capital city of Sarajevo.

An officially recognized national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Sarajevo Haggadah is one of the world’s oldest surviving illuminated Haggadot – Jewish texts read during the Passover Seder.

Sijarić also wrote that “every feigned neutrality” about the Israeli government's actions is “an expression of acceptance and complicity in the genocide that we are all witnessing in real time.”

“As an institution that deals with the protection of cultural-historical and natural heritage, we are obliged to warn that in the shadow of this tragedy, the targeted erasure of the cultural and religious identity, primarily of the Muslims and Christians of Palestine, is taking place,” he said.

In response to the announcement, the American Jewish Committee issued a statement saying that “the museum disgraces itself and disrespects the generations of Jews who read from this Haggadah at their Seder tables.”