Netanyahu to meet with Polish foreign minister at UN General Assembly

Netanyahu will meet with Czaputowicz in his first meeting with a senior Polish official following Poland’s passage of a controversial Holocaust law.

By: World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with Poland’s Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) next month, the first such meeting between Netanyahu and a senior Polish official since the outbreak of a diplomatic crisis between the two countries following Poland’s controversial Holocaust law.

Israel Radio reported Sunday that Czaputowicz was scheduled to arrive in Israel and meet with Netanyahu, but sources in Warsaw said that he had been asked by Israeli officials to postpone the visit. According to the report, Warsaw claimed that they were asked to delay the visit due to the security situation in Israel and that it was not related to the contentious law.

In June, Warsaw gave final approval to the law  that forbids holding Poland responsible for crimes committed during World War II.

Critics in Israel and throughout the Jewish diaspora slammed the law for minimizing the complicity of Polish actors in Nazi war crimes and for whitewashing history, including the fact that many of the Nazis’ genocidal facilities were located in Poland.

In response to outcry generated by passage of the statute, changes to the law were made, including the removal of jail terms for mentioning Polish-Nazi collaboration.

Israel was furious that the Poles published ads in Israeli newspapers supposedly signed by Netanyahu and his counterpart Matthias Moravitzky that included a Hebrew translation of the text of the joint declaration in support of the revised text.

Israeli sources said that this is almost a forgery since both governments agreed on a text in English, with no terms approved in any other language.