Israel–North Macedonia Relations

Israel and North Macedonia maintain full diplomatic relations, established on December 7, 1995. North Macedonia operates an embassy in Tel Aviv, while Israel is represented by a non-resident ambassador based in Israel.[2]

Cooperation has included political consultation, education, culture, sports, security, agriculture, medicine, tourism, water management, innovation, and heritage preservation.[4] Opening a resident Israeli embassy in Skopje and establishing direct air links remain goals under discussion rather than completed initiatives.[3][4]

North Macedonia recognized Israel on December 7, 1992.[5] Full diplomatic relations followed on December 7, 1995. A Jewish Virtual Library table, updated in May 2016, listed Israel as represented by a non-resident ambassador based in Serbia at that time.[2][6]

Israel distinguished itself early in the relationship by recognizing the country under its constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia, rather than the provisional UN reference "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia."[1] North Macedonia maintains an embassy in Tel Aviv, while Israel is represented by a non-resident ambassador based in Israel.[2] In January 2026, a North Macedonian parliamentary delegation identified opening a resident Israeli embassy in Skopje as a bilateral goal.[3]

Citizens of the two countries have not required visas to travel between them, a point Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev highlighted at a 2017 meeting in Jerusalem, where he also described opportunities for deeper investment and tourism cooperation.[7]

A significant early milestone came in December 2015, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski met in Jerusalem to mark the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations. The two leaders signed a treaty to avoid double taxation and a joint declaration of friendship. Netanyahu identified energy, water, agriculture, science, education, technology, defense, and joint efforts against terrorism as areas for expanded cooperation.[8]

At a September 3, 2017 meeting of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev led a high-level delegation that included his deputy prime minister and the agriculture and interior ministers. Zaev stated that his country saw "immense potential" for deeper security cooperation with Israel and discussed investment, tourism, and the visa-free travel arrangement.[7] Macedonia had defeated Israel in a football match in Haifa the night before, and Zaev joked that one third of his government had been in the stands cheering on the team.[7]

A Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies analysis characterizes North Macedonia as having largely backed Israel in international political forums, noting that it abstained on the 2012 UN resolution granting the Palestinian Authority non-member observer-state status and on a 2024 UN resolution concerning Palestinian membership.[9] In 2015, North Macedonia was among five UN Human Rights Council members that abstained on a report condemning Israel's actions during Operation Protective Edge; then-foreign minister Nikola Poposki was quoted saying, "This is not the first time, and probably not the last, that we vote while taking Israel's interests into account."[10] North Macedonian parliamentarian Rashela Mizrahi described her country's support for Israel in international forums as a feature of their friendship, saying North Macedonia had stood with Israel at critical moments "even when it required political courage."[3]

The relationship entered a new phase in August 2026, when North Macedonian Foreign Minister Timčo Mucunski made his first official visit to Israel and met Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar in Jerusalem. The ministers signed two cooperation agreements focused on education, culture, and sports, and discussed expanding work in agriculture, water management, security, innovation, tourism, health, investment, and defense, including cooperation between defense industries. Mucunski said his government had made relations with Israel a foreign-policy priority and described the existing relationship as excellent.[4]

The visit followed a North Macedonian parliamentary delegation to Israel in January 2026 and a Skopje mayoral visit for MUNI EXPO in June 2026. The two sides also discussed direct air links between Tel Aviv and Skopje or Tel Aviv and Ohrid, with Mucunski presenting North Macedonia as a potential gateway for Israeli tourists and companies seeking access to European markets.[4]

Israeli humanitarian assistance has been a recurring and visible dimension of the bilateral relationship, reinforcing ties at moments of acute crisis in North Macedonia.

The first major intervention came during the 1999 Kosovo War, when hundreds of thousands of Albanian refugees crossed the border into Macedonia. On April 6, 1999, an Israel Defense Forces medical mission of 70 personnel — including 12 physicians — flew to Macedonia, arriving four days after Israel's Foreign Ministry dispatched an emergency shipment of medicines, medical equipment, jackets, and tents.[11] At a refugee camp, the team established both an emergency room and a field hospital capable of basic trauma, orthopedic, and gynecological surgery, treating more than 1,560 people over 16 days.[11]

A second major mission followed the March 2025 nightclub fire in Kočani, one of the deadliest disasters in North Macedonia's modern history. Israel dispatched a medical delegation organized by the Foreign Ministry in cooperation with the Health Ministry and Sheba Medical Center. It included doctors, nurses, burn and orthopedic specialists, and Israel's non-resident ambassador Simona Frankel.[2][12] Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said, "Israel stands by North Macedonia in this difficult time," and North Macedonian Foreign Minister Timčo Mucunski responded that the solidarity of partners and friends was invaluable.[12] North Macedonian parliamentarian Rashela Mizrahi later described the medical response as a defining moment in bilateral relations, saying that the public understood "who came to their aid in a time of distress."[3]

In March 1943, 7,144 Jews — 98 percent of the Jewish population then living in Macedonia — were deported to Treblinka. At the end of the Second World War, 140 Jews, mostly Partisans, survived in Macedonia, and most subsequently immigrated to Israel.[13] Postwar studies have estimated the country's Jewish population at roughly 200–250 people, nearly all in Skopje. The re-established Jewish municipality of Skopje became, in effect, the Jewish Community of Macedonia, which was later mentioned in the country's constitution.[13][14]

Holocaust remembrance has become one of the most active and symbolically significant strands of Israel–North Macedonia relations. In March 2018, North Macedonia marked the 75th anniversary of the deportation of its Jews with a tribute at the historic Jewish cemetery in Bitola and a March of the Living in Skopje. The two-day commemorations were attended by government leaders and dignitaries from Israel, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the United States. North Macedonia's parliament adopted a declaration commemorating the country's Jews and affirming a commitment to protect their memory and promote dialogue and understanding.[15]

On December 1, 2018, North Macedonia's Minister of Education and Science, Arber Ademi, and the director of Yad Vashem signed a joint declaration pledging continued cooperation in Holocaust education and encouraging effective measures against antisemitism and discrimination. Ademi praised educational material Yad Vashem had provided and said the ministry would assist with teacher training at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Skopje and improve Holocaust-related educational resources.[15]

The Macedonian government financially helped build the Holocaust Memorial Centre for the Jews of Macedonia and supported its initial operation; one academic study dates its opening to 2011.[14] Another study refers to the establishment of the institution in 2012, leaving unclear whether the sources describe different milestones.[16] A heritage study identifies the centre and the Beit Yaakov Synagogue as Skopje's principal Jewish heritage sites and describes education about Jewish life as the centre's main objective.[13] During the 2017 Jerusalem meeting, Prime Minister Zaev said Macedonia was also working to restore the historic Jewish cemetery in Bitola and was seeking international partners to assist with the work.[7]

During a seven-year tenure, Israeli ambassador Dan Oryan organized an annual March of the Living in Bitola on March 11, coordinated cemetery maintenance with international delegations, and launched the "Bitalon" hackathon, in which local young people developed ways to preserve the memory of Bitola's Jewish community. A memorial dedicated at the Sherover Promenade in Jerusalem bears the names of 280 Jewish families who lived in Macedonia before the Holocaust and uses NFC technology to connect visitors to community stories.[17]

Bitola — known before the Second World War as Monastir — was home to a flourishing Sephardic Jewish community of approximately 3,350 people; only about 100 survived the war.[18] The city's Jewish cemetery, founded in 1497 and containing around 1,000 remaining tombstones, had by the 2010s fallen into severe disrepair and had effectively been used as a waste dump.[18][19]

In July 2015, Israeli ambassador Dan Oryan and Bitola mayor Vladimir Taleski unveiled a commemorative plaque at preserved columns in Bitola's City Park — the remnants of one of the town's prewar synagogues, study houses, or Jewish prayer rooms — and planted a tree nearby.[20] The following month, Oryan and Taleski signed a declaration to protect and preserve the historic Jewish cemetery.[18] By late 2015, Oryan, Rachel Shelley Levi-Drummer, and others had begun the physical work of cleaning and restoring the 11-acre hillside site; the ambassador described it as carrying "an amazing, heartrending story that needed to be told here," and restoration work brought to light headstones that shed new light on former community members.[19]

In December 2015, a tree-planting ceremony launched a project to create the Memorial Park for the Jews from Monastir at the cemetery. The project was organized by the Israeli Embassy, the city of Bitola, and ARHAM, an association focused on sustainable urban development. North Macedonia's culture minister described the park as a memorial to the Jewish community and its role in coexistence with other communities in the city.[21]

North Macedonia's 2000 Denationalization Law covered private, communal, and heirless property. A 2015 government response stated that the law covered properties confiscated after August 2, 1944, and included property of religious communities, including the Jewish community, as well as heirless property of deported Jews.[22]

The response reported returned land and premises and listed 176,541,729 Macedonian denars in state bonds paid to the Jewish community. It also reported compensation for 687 cadastral parcels that had remained without legal successors. A later U.S. State Department report said a final payment to the Holocaust Fund in June 2018 brought compensation under a 2007 agreement to 21.1 million euros.[22][15]

The 2015 response stated that there were no treaties or agreements between the Republic of Macedonia and other countries specifically regarding restitution or compensation — a statement concerning restitution arrangements rather than the broader diplomatic relationship with Israel.[22]

Several aspects of the bilateral relationship rest on contested historical or political ground. The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies characterizes North Macedonia's UN voting record as broadly supportive of Israel, though this reflects the analytical framing of a single source. The same analysis describes relations as less strained than Israel's ties with some other Balkan states while saying that the two countries remain peripheral to one another's interests.[9] Accounts treating North Macedonia's abstentions on Palestinian-related UN resolutions as evidence of political alignment with Israel likewise represent an interpretive position rather than a settled diplomatic assessment.[10][3]

The establishment of the Holocaust Memorial Centre in Skopje became a flashpoint in North Macedonia's relations with Bulgaria. One study argues that the museum's founding — dedicated to the memory of some 7,000 Macedonian Jews murdered at Treblinka — "became an occasion for heated debates about the role of the Bulgarian state in this tragic episode and even aggravated political relations between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia."[16] The same study says Yad Vashem research centers and other scholars refuted the claim that Bulgaria achieved a complete and unconditional rescue of Jews under its wartime rule, and that the State of Israel rejected the portrayal of King Boris III as a savior of Jews. Those positions concern the historical record rather than a separate bilateral diplomatic initiative.[16]

Sources also differ on the precise fatality toll of the March 2025 Kočani nightclub fire: reports published closer to the event recorded at least 59 deaths, while later accounts gave 63.[12][3] These figures reflect reporting at different stages following the disaster rather than a disagreement about whether the event occurred.