Warsaw (AFP)

The Polish president on Saturday approved a law that will drastically limit the possibilities of claims for the return of property confiscated after World War II in Poland, thereby defying Israel and the United States, which are firmly opposed to this legislation.

This new law imposes a limitation period of 30 years for claiming looted property, generally confiscated by the Communist regime after the war.

However, most of them concern the Polish Jewish community or its descendants.

Polish President Andrzej Duda told Polish news agency PAP he hopes this law will end "an era of legal chaos" and "the privatization mafia"

According to the Polish government, this new legislation will restore legal certainty in the real estate market and prevent fraudulent claims.

After the approval of this law by the Polish parliament on Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked Mr. Duda not to sign it - the final step in ensuring that this law is passed. applied--.

Mr. Lapid had said that this law "tarnished the memory of the Holocaust and the rights of its victims".

And to add: "I will continue to oppose any attempt to rewrite history. (...) Poland knows what should be done, it is to cancel this law".

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in Rome on June 27, 2021 Andrew Harnik POOL / AFP / Archives

Mr Blinken said he was "deeply concerned" and urged Poland to approve a general law on claims relating to confiscated property - which other countries in central and eastern Europe have done.

Poland "will not pay for Germany's crimes", reacted Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Six million Poles, half of them Jews, were killed during World War II in Poland.

After the war, the Communist authorities nationalized a large number of properties that had remained empty because their owners had been killed or had fled.

When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, Poland had not organized the restitution of looted property as had done most of the other countries of the Communist bloc, letting individuals try their luck in court.

While the new legislation covers both Jewish and non-Jewish restitution claims, opponents of the law believe it will disproportionately affect Jews because they were often slow to assert their rights after the war.

"Poland is not, of course, responsible for what Nazi Germany did during the Holocaust. However, Poland continues to benefit from property it wrongly acquired," the organization said. World for the Restitution of Jewish Property (WJRO), in a statement.

"Returning property is more than just money, for many Holocaust survivors and their families a home is the last physical link to the life they once led," argued the Organization.

© 2021 AFP