Looted property: new diplomatic crisis between Israel and Poland

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on June 20, 2021 in Jerusalem.

AP - Abir Sultan

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

Indignation in Israel after the approval by Polish President Andrzej Duda of the law prohibiting the return of looted property to Holocaust survivors.

The law imposes a thirty-year limitation period for claiming looted property, usually confiscated by the Communist regime after the war.

Publicity

Read more

With our correspondent in Jerusalem,

Michel Paul

It is probably the most serious crisis that the two countries are going through.

A "

shameful

 "

decision 

, affirms Naftali Bennett, the Israeli Prime Minister, proof of a " 

scandalous contempt for the memory of the Holocaust

 ".

Poland has chosen to continue to

attack those who have already lost everything

, he adds.

For the head of Israeli diplomacy Yaïr Lapid, it is an “

anti-Semitic and immoral

 ” law which has been adopted in Poland. “

Poland has become a country that does not respect the greatest tragedy in human history,

” he added.

The world must not be silent. And it is certain that Israel and the Jewish world will not be silent.

 "

The Israeli charge d'affaires in Warsaw has been recalled for consultations until further notice.

The new Israeli ambassador will not take up his post at this stage.

As for the Polish representative in Israel, he was asked to extend his holidays in his country.

He should use the time he has to explain to the Poles the meaning of the Holocaust for the Israelis, 

" said Yair Lapid.

It will not end there, proclaim Israeli diplomats who say further steps will be taken in consultation with the United States.

► See also: Diplomatic crisis between Poland and Israel

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Israel

  • Poland

  • Naftali Bennett

  • Andrzej Duda

On the same subject

Poland / Israel / Visegrad

Visegrad: accused of anti-Semitism, Poland buries summit in Israel

Poland / Israel

Poland to boycott Holocaust commemorations in Jerusalem

The bottom of the infox, the chronicle

Israel-Poland: instrumentalized anti-Semitism