Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned Israel on Sunday that its continued criticism of Poland’s recently passed anti-restitution law could harm ties between the two countries.
“Israel’s decision to downgrade its diplomatic representation in Warsaw is unfounded and irresponsible, and the words of Yair Lapid, Israel’s foreign minister and alternate prime minister, are deeply offensive to every honest human being,” Morawiecki posted on Facebook, referring to Lapid’s decision to recall the charge d’affaires at the Israeli embassy in Warsaw on Saturday.
“If the Israeli government continues to attack Poland in this way, it will also have a very negative impact on our relations, both bilaterally and in international fora,” warned the Polish prime minister.
“Gone are the days when Poles harmed Jews without consequence. Today, Jews have a proud and strong country of their own,” he continued. “We do not fear anti-Semitic threats and have no intention of turning a blind eye to the shameful conduct of the anti-democratic Polish government.”
Meanwhile, Poland is also reportedly examining whether or not to continue allowing annual Holocaust-education trips by Israeli youth.
“The trips do not take place in a proper manner. They sometimes instill hatred for Poland in the heads of young Israelis,” said Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski. “We will make the right decisions about these trips. We deal with anti-Polish sentiment in Israel, and one of the reasons for this is the way in which Israeli youth are educated and raised.”
Polish President Andrzej Duda approved the legislation, recently passed by both houses of Poland’s parliament, on Saturday.
While the law doesn’t mention the Holocaust, it imposes a 30-year limit for restitution claims on property confiscated by the post-war Communist regime, making it more difficult for Holocaust survivors to reclaim property stolen during World War II.
Morawiecki defended the law, saying it “restores elementary justice and the rule of law in Poland,” and that it was meant to stop criminals who had exploited the situation to claim property with forged documents.
Officials in the United States, as well as international organizations, joined Israel in condemning the legislation.
In 1995, our Shalom International went to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, ten ‘death camps’ in Germany and Mauthausen i Austria and had permission from each government and survivor groups to be at the 50th anniversary of the liberation of these world largest Jewish cemeteries. Our 20 ft. banner said: “Purge, Extradite and Prosecute All Nazi Murderers”. We weren’t there for another memorial, but what happened to the 4000-8000 killers at Auschwitz-Berkinau, murdering millions of Jews and only 50-200, put on trial. We also had this banner at the German Bundestag in Bonn and at the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin, for official end of WWII.
Why did Israel and the Jewish organizations allow the killers to go free? Where is the Jewish soul to let these world’s largest Jewish cemeteries to be in Polish hands to commercialize and trivialize the Holocaust itself, along with the Vatican putting up crosses and those protesting against this outrageous continuation of the Holocaust.
We protested at Polish Embassies in Wash., D.C. and London and at Polish Consulates in NYC and Chicago, 20 times, demanding the return of Auschwitz-Birkenau to the Jewish people to show proper respect and end the Disneyworld outrage there now with banking, restaurant, etc. with one million going there annually.
The Polish Government actually agreed with us that this extermination camp belonged to the Jews and I spoke with Bibi Netayahu about taking over this sight and telling the truth, not only as a statement of being Jewish, but getting all these death camps out of the hands of the very countries supporting the Arabs and increased Anti-Semitism. Bibi had no idea of what I was talking about to his and Israel’s disgrace and shame.
There were 42,500 places of mass murder of 7 million Jews. Today’s youth are clueless of this worst mass murder in history and is a direct failure of our so-called leadership.
The Poles killed Jews after the Holocaust. Jew-hating in Poland is why Hitler put the extermination camps there and 3 million Jews in Poland were murdered and everything Jewish stolen.
So Lapid is upset with the latest Polish Anti-Semitism, while he wants to give up what G-d gave us and millions of Jews were murdered for and give it to the very Arabs aligned with Hitler to ‘Kill All Jews’ and the E.U. and ,U.N. have been backing for 73 years.
Israel withheld monies to Holocaust Survivors and 25% in Israel today are barely surviving and poor and Israel’s collective shame goes way beyond Yad Vashem ‘politics.’
Imagine the UN controlling the ‘death camps’, so that the future will never know what really happened.
Lapid, Gantz, Bennett are so busy bowing and crawling to Biden and his Afghan disaster, while wanting 2 states and what could be more Anti-Semitic?
Why do Jews/Israelis have so little self-respect to allow this? Bibi wanted Poland to buy military equipment and so kept his mouth shut. Poland refused and so they play their dirty cover-up politics today and we wonder why.
Every time we compromise our moral authority and Torah, we lose and always on the defense and apologizing for our existence, while the shekel rules and is really holding us all back.
In this New Year, may our so-called leaders atone for their stupidity and stop selling us all out and still make these demands and tell our story on everything. The ‘truth’ will set us free and give us the missing clarity, purpose and reason, with this positive, important and moral Jewish approach.