Israeli ambassador to Croatia, Ilan Mor, visited Istria County on Thursday to meet with the newly elected mayor of Pula, Filip Zoricic, and the mayor of Vodnjan, Edi Pastrovichio.

State agency Hina reported that “Zoricic expressed hope that Pula and Israel would continue their cooperation and open up new areas of cooperation, such as education and tourism.”

Zoricic said that a sapling from Anne Frank chestnut tree, planted by Pula Gymnasium in 2018 when Zoricic was school’s headmaster, should be re-planted in a new public park, that would be called Anne Frank Park, where events marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day would be held. The famous tree, which stood in front of Anne Frank’s home in Amsterdam during World War II and is mentioned in her diary, survived the war but was destroyed in a storm in 2010.

Its saplings were distributed to schools around the world to promote the story or Anne Frank and raise awareness of the suffering of children during the Holocaust. The Pula sapling is believed to be the only one in Croatia, although dozens of others have been planted across Europe, the United States, and even Japan.

“Israel has good relations with Istria County, and I am looking forward to future joint projects and further development of relations between Pula and Israel,” Mor was quoted as saying.

The meeting with Pastrovichio, Hina reported, “focused on links shared by Israel and the Vodnjan area,” such as agriculture and olive oil production, notably how to apply Israeli methods of olive oil production to Istria.

The small town of Vodnjan is home to a number of olive oil producers. Thanks largely to indigenous sorts of olives grown there, the olive oil produced in the Vodnjan area is considered world’s best.