Israeli official condemns report Poland would arrest Netanyahu if he attends Auschwitz anniversary

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism, Michal Cotler-Wunsh, has condemned reports that Poland could comply with an International Criminal Court (ICC) order to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he attends next month’s 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

“The fact that Israel’s prime minister will not be able to land in Poland for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz…is the most Orwellian-inverted reality,” Cotler-Wunsh told Newsmax, adding that it “should trouble Jews around the world as [part of] a manifestation of a tsunami of antisemitism”.

Her comments came after a report last week in Rzeczpospolita, a leading Polish newspaper, suggesting that Netanyahu is not planning to attend the 27 January anniversary at the former German-Nazi camp of Auschwitz – which is located in what is now Poland – due to fear of arrest.

The newspaper said that “the Israeli authorities did not even ask for Prime Minister Netanyahu to participate in the ceremony” because “they knew what Warsaw’s response would be”. It added that Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog is also unlikely to attend (though he is not subject to an ICC warrant).

On 21 November this year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the armed conflict with Palestine. All the ICC’s 124 members, including Poland, are in theory obliged to arrest the pair if they enter their territory.

Speaking to Rzeczpospolita, Polish deputy foreign minister Władysław Bartoszewski, who is responsible for coordinating the anniversary event, said that “we are obliged to respect the decisions of the ICC”.

Meanwhile, anonymous Polish diplomatic sources told the newspaper that Poland is determined to ensure that Vladimir Putin, who is also subject to an ICC warrant, eventually appears before the court. “That is why we must abide by its decisions,” they said.

However, Cotler-Wunsh told Newsmax that Poland had missed “the most important moment to say ‘never again’ in the 80-year commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz” and to stand with Israel “in response to the worst attack of Jews since the Holocaust”.

She argued that the ICC warrants represent the “hijacking and weaponisation of international law and its infrastructures for the systematic demonisation and delegitimisation and application of double standards toward the state of Israel, the proverbial Jew among the nations”.

Alan Dershowitz, a prominent American-Jewish law professor and political commentator, went even further, calling for an international boycott of the Auschwitz event and also accusing Poland of complicity in the Holocaust.

“Let’s remember what Poland did. It played such a major role in the Holocaust. So many Polish people refused to help the Jews and turned them in,” Dershowitz told Newsmax, though he added that “there were [also] very good Poles” who helped Jews.

“So Poland has something to hide and something to be ashamed of,” continued Dershowitz. “And the last thing they should do is threaten to arrest the elected prime minister of the only democracy in the Middle East that certainly has never engaged in genocide or anything like it.”

Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, however, have accused Israel of committing genocidal acts against the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post also this week condemned the “obscene irony” of Poland potentially arresting Israel’s leader during a visit to Auschwitz, saying that it would “undermine the very purpose of the commemoration”.

In response to the controversy, Bartoszewski today issued a statement through the Polish foreign ministry saying he wanted to “set the record straight” on his remarks.

The minister noted that he had never specifically said that Netanyahu would be arrested if he came to Poland for the Auschwitz anniversary. However, he also added that Poland “adheres to all international agreements, treaties and obligations that she has signed and ratified”.

Holocaust history has regularly been a cause of diplomatic tensions between Poland and Israel in recent years. In 2022, Israel suspended Holocaust education trips to Poland due to differences between the two governments over their form and content.

However, the following year, the two countries reached an agreement for them to resume. But some Israeli historians and opposition figures criticised that deal as a “surrender” to Poland and its interpretation of Second World War history.

Auschwitz was originally set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland as a camp to house Polish “political” prisoners before later becoming primarily a site for the murder of Jews.

At least 1.3 million victims were transported there, with at least 1.1 million of them killed at the camp. Around one million of those victims were Jews, most of whom were murdered in gas chambers immediately after their arrival. The second largest group of victims numerically were ethnic Poles.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Krakow.pl

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.