Summit cancelled as Israel and Poland row over Holocaust

Poland has pulled out of a planned trip to Jerusalem and scuppered an international summit the same day officials were due to arrive, after Israel’s foreign minister accused Poles of hatred against Jews and complicity in the Holocaust.

Israel Katz, who was appointed acting foreign minister on Sunday, said Poles “suckle antisemitism with their mother’s milk”. Speaking on another radio show on Monday morning, he accused all Polish people of harbouring “innate” antisemitism.

The Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said the remarks were “unacceptable” and “racist”.

Katz’s comments deepened a diplomatic crisis between the two countries, which began on Thursday when the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “Poles cooperated with the Nazis.” His office later said he was misquoted by domestic media as saying “the Poles”, suggesting blame of the entire nation rather than individuals.

Yet, the ensuing standoff has overshadowed a summit Netanyahu was due to host on Monday for the V4 group – Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. It also threatens to derail his efforts to draw alliances with central European nations despite national concerns over deepening xenophobic politics in that region.

Israel later conceded that Poland’s absence meant the V4, with only three of the four members attending, would be cancelled. “There will be no full V4 meeting,” Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry said.

Poland’s foreign ministry has summoned the Israeli ambassador twice in three days, and the head of the Polish prime minister’s office, Michał Dworczyk, said the Israeli foreign minister’s comments were “disgraceful” .

Katz told Israel’s Army Radio on Monday he wanted to maintain good relations with Poland, but went on to criticise all Poles.

He said: “Historical truth cannot be changed. Many Poles collaborated with the Nazis and took part in the destruction of the Jews during the Holocaust … Antisemitism was innate among the Poles before the Holocaust, during it and after it too.”

Before the second world war, Poland was home to one of the world’s largest Jewish communities, which was almost wiped out by the Nazis.

After Germany occupied the country in 1939, an underground resistance fought the Nazis and tried to warn the world about the Holocaust. Many Poles do not accept research showing thousands also participated in the Holocaust.

Critics accuse the nationalist government in Poland of whitewashing instances of such collaboration. Israel complained to Warsaw last year when legislation was introduced that would have made the use of phrases such as “Polish death camps” punishable by up to three years in prison.

The legislation was later watered down and prison sentences removed.

Netanyahu had hoped central European countries would act as a ally for Israel against other European nations critical of its occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, said these allies had already helped to block a movement to condemn the decision by Donald Trump to recognise the contested city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

However, Netanyahu has long been criticised by domestic opponents for ignoring historical revisionism and antisemitism in central Europe.

Yair Lapid, the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party in Israel and the son of a Holocaust survivor, tweeted that Netanyahu “should have told the Polish prime minister: Cancel the plane ticket now, don’t come here, because we don’t grovel over the memory of the Holocaust”.

Lapid had previously condemned the summit, saying its invitees included a prime minister who “publishes antisemitic content” and another who desecrates the memories of Holocaust victims. “It’s a loss for all national pride,” he said.

(THE GUARDIAN)