Dodik objects National Museum's decision to donate funds for Palestine

The museum announced on Friday it would donate the funds as a support "to the people of Palestine who 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."

"At a time when we cannot justify ourselves with a lack of information, every averting of our eyes, every feigned neutrality in the face of everyday examples of killing, starvation and forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, primarily women and children, is an expression of acceptance and complicity in the genocide that we are all witnessing in real time," said the museum.

It also said it was "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, through the demolition, taking over or making it impossible to use religious buildings and historical locations, as well as land and cultivated areas, which should be common, universal and protected heritage of civilization."

Dodik, who is the President of Republika Srpska, one of Bosnia's two entities with majority of the Serb population, said that this region distances from this act and also recalled of the recently called off meeting of the Conference of European Rabbis in Sarajevo.

"This is not an isolated gesture, but part of a continuing pattern of hostility toward Jews," Dodik said.

"To use the Haggadah as a symbolic statement against Israel is a profound affront to those who understand its significance to the Jewish people," he added.

Dodik has faced a six-year political ban after the State Court upheld the first-instance verdict against the Serb politician, over defying the decisions of the international peace envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dodik is often characterized in the local and international media as a pro-Russia Serb leader, while he also often voices support for US President Donald Trump and Israel.