Israeli Ambassador to Croatia Ilan Mor said in an interview for Vecernji List daily published on Thursday that the commemoration in Jasenovac had to be above daily politics and that if using "heil Hitler" was outlawed, the salute "for the homeland ready" should also be.

“No matter how much I want to be with the prime minister, culture minister and the president, I cannot because I was instructed to come at a specific time. There is no joint commemoration due to the pandemic, which I can understand, but I hope that will not be an obstacle in the future,” said Mor, who will lay a wreath at the commemoration for the victims of Jasenovac in a separate protocol.

Asked how he interprets the public treatment of the salute “For the homeland ready” in Croatia, he said he was ‘confused.’

“On my first official visit to Croatia I went to Vukovar and heard about the courage of the city’s fighters and defenders. They told me that the slogan was used during the Homeland War. Then I went to Jasenovac and heard — of course, not for the first time — that ‘For the homeland ready’ represents what I cannot accept,” the ambassador said.

“The question of the Ustasha salute ‘For the homeland ready’ confuses me, and if I am confused, what will be with secondary school students that go to Jasenovac and hear one thing, and a week later hear the opposite in Vukovar,” Mor said.

He expressed hope that Croatian politicians would find a way to have a joint commemoration in Jasenovac, Vecernji List wrote on Thursday.