Controversy over law on restitution of property to Jews in Poland: government warns it will “not pay a zloty, not a euro, not a dollar”

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski meets with Acting Israeli Ambassador Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon in Warsaw on Monday to discuss Polish legislation which will limit the restitution of property to the Jewish population and the diplomatic disagreement it has caused.

The meeting is preceded by an exchange of hostile statements between the Polish and Israeli governments and a tense diplomatic situation.

This Sunday, the ambassadors of Poland and Israel were called for consultations in the respective countries where they represent their states.

The law was approved by the Polish Parliament on June 24 and the next day Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called it an “immoral attack on the rights of Holocaust survivors”, to which his Polish namesake, Zbigniew Rau He responded with accusations of “lack of knowledge” and “malice”.

For his part, the head of the Polish government, Mateusz Morawiecki, assured that As long as he is prime minister, “Poland will not pay for German crimes: not a zloty, not a euro, not a dollar”.

“We are not interested in Polish money, to suggest such a thing is anti-Semitic,” the Foreign Minister replied the next day.

In Warsaw, Acting US Ambassador Bix Aliu wrote a letter to Polish Congress spokesman expressing “deep concern” about the law and the possibility that it will cause “irreparable loss” to victims of the Holocaust and their descendants. .

It turns out that is the case Within days, around 70 Jewish graves were found desecrated in a cemetery in Bielsko-Biala, in southern Poland.

The city’s Jewish community released a statement that describes the events as “a blow to the history of the city and to all those who helped save the cemetery”, which was established in 1849 and has been considered a protected historic site since 1983.

Polish law, awaiting ratification by the Senate, cancels requests for the return of expropriated property made more than 30 years ago.

This limitation would eliminate demands made by the Jewish population living in Poland during World War II and during the Communist regime, which, according to Israeli foreign policy chief Alon Bar, This will “negatively affect 90%” of Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

The legislative change is motivated by the application of a judgment of the Polish Constitutional Court of 2015, which established that proceedings against administrative decisions should be limited in time.

The Polish government has decided that this limit will be set over the past 30 years.

(with information from the EFE)

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