Poland has canceled its participation in the Visegrad Summit (V4) today and tomorrow in Israel, according to newly appointed Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz. This was announced by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Polish television.
The background is a dispute between the two countries as to whether Poland has collaborated with the Nazi occupiers during the Second World War. Morawiecki described Katz’s words as „inadmissible and racist“. The Israeli ambassador Anna Azari was summoned to the Warsaw Foreign Ministry, according to the authorities.
Katz said on Israeli television last night, „There were many Poles who collaborated with the Nazis.“ Katz – himself the son of Holocaust survivors – referred to a statement by ex-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir: „The Poles have anti-Semitism with the Breast milk absorbed. „Katz had just been appointed Acting Foreign Minister yesterday. With his statements he heated up the actually settled dispute with Poland again.
Already canceled
„There will not be a full V4 meeting,“ Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a written statement. However, the other three heads of government would come to Israel as planned and meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it said.
Poland’s Prime Minister Morawiecki had previously canceled his visit to the Visegrad meeting in Jerusalem at short notice. Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz was to travel to Israel instead of Morawiecki. Netanyahu had attended a group meeting in 2017 and then invited the countries to Israel. The group of Visegrad states includes Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
Germany’s invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 had begun World War II. In Poland, a new law has been in force for almost a year, imposing a fine on the Polish nation to attribute responsibility for the crimes committed by Nazi Germany. Morawiecki emphasized that the „historical truth“ was fundamental to Poland.
