Polish Jews slam 'unjust, offensive' anti-Semitism comment from Israeli minister

In response to comments made by Israel’s new foreign minister Yisrael Katz the previous day, the Chief Rabbi of Poland who heads the country’s Union of Jewish Communities released a statement on Monday declaring Katz’ remarks offensive to Polish Jews and to the many non-Jewish Poles who helped save their Jewish compatriots from mass slaughter.

"The Poles suckle anti-Semitism from their mother's breasts," Yisrael Katz said during a special joint i24NEWS-Israel Hayom election program on Sunday.

In response to the premier's remarks, the Polish prime minister cancelled his planned attendance at the Visegrad conference, being held for the first time in Israel, and said he would send lower representation to the summit instead.

In the Jewish union’s statement - which was co-signed by Poland’s Ambassador Marek Magierowski and the leader of Poland’s Jewish community - the Chief Rabbi appeared to agree with Poland’s government that the remarks from Israel’s newly-appointed top diplomat were deeply offensive.

“The words of PM Iccak Shamir cited by minister Israel Katz, were unjust already when they were first said, in 1989, when Polish-Israeli relations were just beginning to be rebuilt, after the long night of communism,” the letter read.

“They are even more unjust today, 30 years later, when so much has been done on both sides for a mutual understanding of our very difficult, but shared history. It is a fact that a number of Poles had participated in the German killing of Jews, directly or indirectly, in WWII,” it continues.

“We also remember that during the occupation of Poland, Poland never established a collaborationist regime with the 3rd Reich,” it adds, nothing that Poles were widely representing among the Righteous among the Nations, a term which refers non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

“Accusing all Poles of antisemitism offends the Righteous… And it also offends us, Polish Jews,” the letter concludes.

Poland had earlier demanded that Israel apologize for what it called a "racist" comment by Katz, in which he quoted former Israeli premier Yitzhak Shamir, who was well-known for the kind of radical anti-Polish sentiment not uncommon among Holocaust survivors.

Katz' comment further inflamed a spat between the two countries sparked over the weekend by provocative comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Warsaw which tested the limits of a controversial Polish law that criminalizes attributions of blame to the Polish state for atrocities committed under Nazi occupation.

But Warsaw withdrew from the summit altogether after Katz's remarks, which Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called "shameful and racist."

This week's summit with Israel and the Visegrad Four (V4) -- the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia -- would now be postponed until later in the year, Slovak government spokeswoman Patricia Macikova told AFP, after Poland pulled out.

"The prime ministers of Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary will use the visit for bilateral meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as well as a trilateral meeting," she added, speaking for Slovak premier Peter Pellegrini, who currently chairs the V4 group.

However, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said it was not immediately clear whether Israel would hold a summit with the remaining participants or instead organize a series of separate meetings.

- Sensitive subject -

The row between Poland and Israel broke out last week when Netanyahu -- who was quoted in Haaretz newspaper as saying that "the Poles collaborated with the Nazis" -- was condemned in Poland for appearing to accuse all Polish people of cooperating with Nazi Germany during World War II.

Warsaw has long been at pains to state that Poland, which was occupied by Nazi Germany, did not collaborate in the Holocaust although individual Poles gave up Jews to the Nazis.

"The Polish government in exile was warning (about the Holocaust) and its delegation in occupied territory, namely the underground army, condemned to death blackmailers of different nationalities who denounced the Jews (to the Nazis)," Morawiecki told Polish media Monday.

"So as a state we behaved properly," he added.

It is also undeniable that Polish Jews perished at the hands of their non-Jewish neighbors in isolated cases.

Polish-American historian Jan T. Gross triggered shock in Poland in 2001 with his book "Neighbors", in which he revealed that in 1941 during the Nazi German occupation, several hundred Jews were massacred by their Polish neighbors in the northeastern town of Jedwabne.

- 'Misquoted' -

The Israeli prime minister's office said on Friday that Netanyahu had not implicated all Poles in the Holocaust, insisting he was "misquoted".

Netanyahu was in Warsaw last week for a two-day summit on the Middle East, co-hosted by Poland and the United States, which focused on isolating Iran while building Arab-Israeli ties.

The fresh controversy in Polish-Israeli ties comes after a row last year over a Polish law that made it illegal to accuse the Polish nation or state of complicity in Nazi German crimes.

After protests from Israel and the US, Poland amended the law to remove the possibility of fines or a prison sentence.

Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II and lost six million citizens including three million Jews.