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Polish, Israeli PMs hold talks amid tensions over WWII history

PR dla Zagranicy
Alicja Baczyńska 19.02.2018 08:30
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu have spoken over the phone and discussed Morawiecki’s recent comments on “Jewish perpetrators” during World War II.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Photo: EPA/RONALD WITTEKPolish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Photo: EPA/RONALD WITTEK

Speaking at a Munich security conference on Saturday about a new Polish anti-defamation law, Morawiecki was cited by The Daily Telegraph as saying: “It's not going to [be] punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukraine and German perpetrators."

In his telephone conversation with Netanyahu on Sunday, Morawiecki said Poland did not agree to the German perpetrators of crimes being equated with the "Nations of the Victims," the Polish Prime Minister’s Office said.

"...In those terrible times of war and the Holocaust - there were also... people who collaborated with the occupiers... people who cooperated with the Nazi evil," Morawiecki told Netanyahu, according to the Polish Prime Minister’s Office.

"All these cases require clarification and research. No such... individual case should burden with responsibility... whole nations that were victims of the Nazi German death machine," Morawiecki said, as cited by his office.

Both sides agreed to establish joint teams, within which experts representing the two countries will conduct historical research that will particularly deal with difficult events. This “requires honesty and responsibility, as well as mutual respect and understanding,” the Polish Prime Minister’s Office said following the exchange.

Polish President Andrzej Duda recently signed into force a contested law which could impose a jail term on anyone who accuses Poland of being complicit in Nazi German crimes. The move triggered tensions between Poland and Israel.

Morawiecki told Netanyahu that Poland was intent on further developing a nearly 1000-year collaboration between the two nations, and expressed hope for reaching common ground on issues concerning the historical truth, the Prime Minister’s Office added. (aba/pk)

Source: IAR

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