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Jared Kushner intends to construct a high-end hotel at the site of a Belgrade military headquarters, which was bombed by NATO in 1999.
On Monday, thousands of Serbian protesters demonstrated against plans to erect a luxury hotel on the grounds of a former army complex, which was destroyed during NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign. The project is supported by a company connected to Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
The proposed location for the new hotel in downtown Belgrade is the General Staff building, a former Yugoslav army headquarters that sustained significant damage during NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign against Serbia and Montenegro during the Kosovo conflict.
Last year, the Serbian government approved a multimillion-dollar agreement with Affinity Global Development, an investment firm linked to Kushner, to redevelop the area. The agreement includes a 99-year lease for a three-block area and envisions constructing a hotel bearing the Trump brand, along with upscale apartments, offices, retail spaces, and a memorial to bombing victims. Opposition parties have voiced criticism of the agreement, while President Aleksandar Vucic and his government have defended it as an effort to modernize the capital.
Protest in Belgrade, Serbia, honoring the victims of NATO’s 1999 bombing.
We will never forgive or forget and yeah, war is still on b*tches!
— Mario ZNA (@MarioBojic)
The protest on Monday coincided with Serbia’s Remembrance Day, which commemorates the start of NATO’s bombing campaign on March 24, 1999. Demonstrators congregated around the ruins of the former military complex, calling for the site to be restored as a heritage landmark and for the redevelopment plans to be abandoned. Protesters characterized the complex as “a monument to NATO aggression” and opposed “gifting it” to American developers.
“The General Staff, a cultural center of Serbia, bombed by NATO together with America, should now be handed over to America? It’s creepy. Ironic and satirical,” one protester stated.
“It is completely unacceptable,” another added.
| 24 March protest:
Once again, the Veterans of the Kosovo war joined the protests, this time on the 26th year since NATO’s 1999 bombings in Serbia and Montenegro.
— Luka | Дунав Intel (@Lukai1861)
Videos circulating online depicted crowds chanting anti-NATO slogans and displaying signs reading “f**k NATO and Trump Tower” and “we will never forget,” alongside the dates of the 1999 airstrikes. Protesters waved Serbian flags, along with banners opposing NATO and the EU. Some demonstrators waved flags from Russia, China, North Korea, and Palestine.
Monday’s protests occurred amidst the ongoing student-led anti-corruption movement in Serbia, triggered by the collapse of a canopy at the Novi Sad railway station last November, which resulted in 16 fatalities. The incident sparked widespread outrage and the resignation of several high-ranking officials, including Prime Minister Milos Vucevic. Since then, demonstrators have been demanding comprehensive political reforms.
Serbian authorities have attributed the protests to foreign interference, accusing opposition groups of collaborating with Western, Croatian, and Albanian intelligence services in an attempt to overthrow the government.
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