Polish foreign minister hits back at Israeli ambassador for UN Palestine vote criticism

Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, has hit back at Israeli ambassador Yacov Livne for criticising Warsaw’s decision to support Palestinian membership of the UN.

Livne warned that the decision would “harm Poland”. But Sikorski today responded by labelling the remarks “patronising” and saying that it is “the Polish government, not foreign ambassadors, which will decide what is good for Poland”.

On Friday, Poland was among the majority of 143 countries to vote in favour of supporting Palestine’s bid to become a full member of the UN.

Only nine countries opposed the motion: the United States, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Israel itself. A further 25 – including Canada, Germany, Italy, Ukraine and the United Kingdom – abstained.

Following the vote, Livne took to X to criticise Poland’s decision. He warned that it set a “dangerous precedent of rewarding the aggressor”, that it “continued the 1988 Soviet-led anti-West decision of recognising [a] ‘Palestinian state'”, that it “rewarded Iran and Hamas”, and that it was a “complete violation of the UN charter”.

“This is a wrong and harmful decision for security, stability, and for Poland,” added the ambassador.

In an interview on Tuesday morning with Polskie Radio, Sikorski noted that an “ambassador has the right to express the views or interests of his country”. He added, however, that “the Polish government will decide what is good for Poland, not foreign ambassadors”.

“I think that the ambassador needs to get to know us better and realise that we, as Poles, react badly to a patronising tone,” added the minister.

He went on to clarify that Poland’s decision at the UN “was not a vote against Israel, it was a vote in favour of a two-state solution in line with the Polish policy of recognising Palestinian statehood that we have been pursuing for more than three decades”.

Today, Sikorski’s ministry also published posts on social media wishing Israel “peace and prosperity” on the occasion of its independence day.

Recent weeks have seen heightened tensions between Poland and Israel, in particular following the death of a Polish aid worker, Damian Soból, during the Israeli strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy in Gaza.

Livne’s initial refusal to apologise for the incident – and his claims that some Polish politicians were stoking antisemitism by suggesting Israel deliberately attacked the convoy – caused anger in Poland. President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk were among those to criticise him.

Subsequently, Livne was summoned to the Polish foreign ministry, where he delivered an apology.

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Main image credit: Konrad Laskowski/MSZ (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.