# Thousands protest in Belgrade against Kushner-backed redevelopment of former army headquarters
Thousands of people protested in Belgrade on November 11, 2025, against a planned $500 million redevelopment of Serbia's former Yugoslav Army headquarters, a project linked to US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. The demonstration turned a real-estate plan into a wider argument about history, corruption and national memory.
The site was badly damaged in the 1999 NATO bombing campaign and had long carried protected cultural status. That status was lifted last year, prompting an investigation into alleged document forgery and fuelling public anger. Protesters see the redevelopment not as urban renewal but as the removal of a symbolic ruin tied to Serbia's experience of the war.
The rally was led by students and took the form of a symbolic human chain around the ruins. Participants drew red lines on the pavement and declared the area untouchable. Their message was that the building should remain a historical marker, not become a luxury complex. The government, by contrast, has fast-tracked the plan and leased the land for 99 years to Affinity Global Development, a company connected to Kushner and Emirati partner Eagle Hills.
Last week, the government passed a special law classifying the project as urgent, which means faster permits despite legal challenges. That move deepened criticism that officials were using state power to force through a politically sensitive development. Protesters said the law effectively legalises corruption, while prosecutors are reportedly examining whether the revocation of the site's protected status was manipulated to clear the way for the project.
The government argues the project will strengthen economic ties with Washington. But the public response shows that the site is not simply land with commercial value. For many Serbs, it remains a symbol of resistance to the US-led bombing campaign, and replacing it with luxury towers risks being read as erasing a painful chapter of national history.
The demonstration also fits a wider wave of anti-government activism in Serbia. The evidence says anger intensified after a train station canopy collapse in Novi Sad last year killed 16 people, an event widely blamed on crony contracting. The Belgrade protest therefore joined grievances about corruption, safety and foreign influence into one visible street mobilisation.
What happened in Belgrade was more than a protest against one development deal. It was a public test of whether the government can impose a high-value project on a site many citizens believe should remain untouched. The crowd's human chain made that objection literal, turning the ruins themselves into a line the state should not cross.
