The Polish ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski, has been attacked in Tel Aviv. A man approached the ambassador when he was sitting in his vehicle and spat at him, an Israeli police spokesman said. The police called in arrested the 65-year-old suspect.
The court in Tel Aviv, however, released him on Wednesday and put him under house arrest. He was not allowed to approach the Polish Embassy for 30 days. In the case will be further determined.
The Israeli news site "Ynet" writes that the man physically attacked and verbally abused the ambassador. The Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said the incident was being investigated by the police. "The State Department is completely in solidarity with the Ambassador and shaken by the incident."
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Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on Twitter: "The racist attack on the Polish Ambassador to Israel is an inadmissible incident." Poland condemns all forms of xenophobia - against both diplomats and all other citizens. The Polish Foreign Ministry in Warsaw called the Israeli ambassador in connection with the attack. The head of Morawiecki's government office, Michal Dworczyk, demanded that the aggressor be punished.
Relations between Israel and Poland have been strained for a long time. Last year, Poland's controversial Holocaust law shook the relationship. The provision initially provided for fines and prison sentences for those who attribute to the Polish state or people "publicly and contrary to the facts" responsibility or co-responsibility for crimes committed by the German Nazi regime.
In Israel and around the world, the regulation is sharply criticized: it could be used to cover up crimes committed by Poles against Jews. In order to defuse the dispute with Israel, Warsaw later canceled the prison sentences from the law. Recently there had been new tensions between Poland and Israel over compensation claims for formerly Jewish property.