Crisis in Israel-Poland Relations

The crisis in relations between Jerusalem and Warsaw has intensified over the approval of a law in the Polish parliament and senate. This law considers Poland's involvement in Nazi crimes during World War II as a prosecutable offense. According to Israeli media, a delegation headed by the Deputy Minister of Tourism of Poland, which was scheduled to attend an international tourism exhibition in Tel Aviv on Monday, February 5, has canceled its trip. Previously, Israel had also requested a delegation led by the Secretary of the National Security Council of Poland to refrain from traveling to that country. Two weeks ago, the Polish parliament approved a bill drafted by the Deputy Minister of Justice of that country, which criminalizes Poland's involvement in Nazi crimes. The Polish senate confirmed this law last Thursday. This law stipulates that Nazi death camps should not be referred to as Polish camps, and violators may face fines or prosecution, which could lead to a three-year prison sentence. This law will not apply to artistic activities or academic research regarding the Holocaust in Poland. According to reports, Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the ruling Law and Justice Party in Poland, stated that the aim of this law is to prevent Poland from being accused as a 'nation,' rather than someone saying they witnessed the killing of Jews in certain areas of Poland. He claimed that this law has been 'misinterpreted.' Kaczyński has urged Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland, who has two and a half weeks left to approve this law, to support its implementation. Duda has previously expressed support for this law. However, Reuven Rivlin, the President, and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, have strongly criticized the law. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has summoned the highest-ranking official at the Polish embassy in Tel Aviv in recent days. At the same time, Anna Azari, the Israeli ambassador to Poland, stated that 'hundreds of anti-Semitic messages' from right-wingers in Poland have reached this embassy, raising her concerns about the intensification of anti-Semitic sentiments in the country. According to Israeli media, a majority of representatives in the Polish parliament have also stated that they have prepared a draft law that would consider it a crime to declare that Poland was not involved in Nazi crimes. The crisis in relations between the two countries coincided with the ceremonies marking the seventy-third anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, where the Prime Minister of Poland participated alongside the Israeli ambassador in Warsaw to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. The Holocaust, the systematic extermination of Jews according to the Nazi regime's plan, was carried out in part at the Auschwitz death camp, which was located in a part of Poland occupied by the Nazis. Elderly Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust have recently expressed concern that their statements about the complicity of some Poles with the Nazis in the killings or stating that Auschwitz was a Polish camp could lead to their punishment in Poland. The conflict between Israel and Poland has also brought Germany into the discussion; Sigmar Gabriel, the German Foreign Minister, recently stated that the genocides committed by the Nazis were carried out by Germany, and those who individually assisted the Nazis in these killings were not the decision-makers of the mass murders. Meanwhile, Gabriel emphasized that Holocaust survivors should be able to freely express their evidence.