Israel condemns “immoral” Polish property restitution bill

Israel has condemned new restitution legislation in Poland, warning that it will harm relations between the two countries. Many observers, including the acting US ambassador, have raised concern that the bill will make it harder for Jewish Holocaust survivors and their families to reclaim stolen property.

Poland’s foreign ministry has, however, denounced the Israeli statements, saying that they show “ill will” and a “complete lack of knowledge”.

“Today, the Polish parliament passed a law prohibiting the return of Jewish property or compensation to Holocaust survivors and their descendants,” tweeted Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid last night.

“I do not intend to remain silent in the face of this law [which] is a direct and painful violation of the rights of Holocaust survivors and their descendants,” he continued. “This is not the first time that Poles have tried to deny what was done in Poland during the Holocaust.”

The Israeli embassy in Warsaw, meanwhile, released a statement warning that the “immoral law will seriously affect relations between our two countries”. It added that Israel expects Poland to abide by the terms of the Terezin Declaration, which commits countries to returning property stolen during the Holocaust.

Earlier this week, Polish newspaper Dziennik Gazeta Prawna reported that the acting head of the US embassy in Warsaw, Bix Aliu, had written to the speaker of parliament to “express his deep concern about the law, which – if adopted – will cause irreparable losses for Holocaust survivors and their families”.

“We understand that the bill will effectively make it impossible to recover or compensate for lost property during the Holocaust and communism,” he wrote. “Both Jews and those who are not of Jewish origin will receive nothing.”

The legislation in question is an implementation of a 2015 ruling by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, which stated that there should be a limit on the period in which it is possible to make claims against decisions issued in violation of the law, such as illegitimate seizure of property.

The bill would amend the existing law by introducing a 30-year limit. This would mean that claims for property confiscated during the Second World War or the communist era could not be made, reports news website Onet.

The amendment was approved yesterday by the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, with 309 votes in favour, none against and 120 abstentions. It now passes to the upper-house Senate. The opposition has a majority there, but the bill is likely to be passed, notes Onet.

In the Sejm, all MPs from the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) and centrist Poland 2050 (Polska 2050) caucuses voted in favour, as did most of those from The Left (Lewica), the centre-right Polish Coalition (KP), and the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja). All but one MP from the main opposition group, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), abstained.

In response to Israel’s criticism of the legislation, two Polish deputy foreign ministers took to Twitter to reject the Israeli claims. “Yesterday’s statement must be unquivocally [sic] rejected,” wrote Paweł Jabłoński. “It features ill will and – most of all – profound lack of knowledge.”

“Poles and Jews alike were victims of horrendous German atrocities during WWII,” he continued. “[The] law adopted in [the] Sejm protects the victims and their heirs from fraud and abuse & implements the Consitutional [sic] Tribunal judgment of 2015.”

“During the so-callled [sic] ‘wild reprivatisation’ in Warsaw and other Polish cities many were deprived of everything they owned,” concluded the deputy minister. “Any attempt to block the law equals support for continuing this injustice. Neither the state of Israel, nor anyone else should grant such support.”

“The new time limits would apply only to administrative proceedings and NOT civil lawsuits,” added Marcin Przydacz, another deputy foreign minister. “[It] protects the victims and their heirs from fraud&abuse [sic].”

The issue of property restitution has long strained Poland’s relations with Israel and Jewish groups. The latter argue that Poland is the only country in the region not to have passed comprehensive legislation enabling the reclaiming of property stolen under German-Nazi occupation or postwar communist rule.

They say that this is particularly damaging to Jewish Holocaust survivors and their descendants. Before the war, Poland was home to Europe’s largest Jewish population, more than three million people. Around 90% of those were killed in the Holocaust, while many of the rest fled either during or after the war.

Many in Poland, however, argue that Poles, who were also victims of the German occupation and Soviet-imposed communist rule, should not be made to pay for the crimes of others. They also note that Polish restitution laws do not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity or religion.

Main image credit: Ralph Alswang/Brookings Institute (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.