Poland ignites diplomatic row with Israel as Senate approves new Holocaust speech restrictions

People who blame Poles for the crimes of Nazi Germany will face three years in jail

Poland’s Senate has approved a law that would make it illegal to attribute any blame to Poles for the Holocaust and the crimes of Nazi Germany.

The EU member state risks opening a diplomatic rift with Israel and the United States with the new legislation, which threatens three years in prison for anyone who intentionally breaks the new restrictions.

The US State Department has warned that the law could “undermine free speech and academic discourse”, while politicians from across Israel’s political spectrum have condemned it.

High-profile former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has accused the Polish government of “spitting in the face of Israel”, while serving Israeli government ministers have said it amounts to Holocaust denial.

The law, which includes an exception for research and artistic work, was pushed by the ruling right-wing populist Law and Justice party and passed by the Senate by 57 to 23, with two abstentions.

The bill must now only be signed off by Poland’s President, Andrzej Duda, before it formally becomes law. Mr Duda has publicly stated his support for the proposal, meaning it is almost certain to appear on the statute books soon.

The law is aimed in part at stopping the use of the phrase “Polish death camps” to refer to Nazi concentration camps in the media and elsewhere.

“We have to send a clear signal to the world that we won’t allow for Poland to continue being insulted,” deputy justice minister Patryk Jaki said.

Exterminations camps on occupied Polish soil set up by the Nazis killed 90 per cent of the country’s Jewish population, including at Auschwitz, where over a million people, mostly Jews, died.

The Polish government points to widely-recognised assistance given to Jews by Christian Poles during the Holocaust, often at great risk to themselves – and the fact no Polish collaborationist government was ever formed.

Halina Birenbaum, a Holocaust survivor and Israeli author, however, told Israel’s Army Radio that the law was “ludicrous and disproportionate to what actually happened to Jews” in Poland.

Poland’s President, Andrzej Duda, must now sign the law (Reuters) (REUTERS)

Ms Birenbaum, a member of the International Auschwitz Committee, said she was concerned the Polish government “might arrest me there for what I’m saying now”.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, is now facing pressure from his own ministers to recall the Israeli ambassador to Poland for consultation.

Yisrael Katz, the country’s Transport Minister, said: “In the balance between diplomatic considerations and moral considerations, there must be a clear decision: perpetuating the memory of the victims of the Holocaust above any other consideration.”

Poland’s populist government is separately embroiled in a row with the European Union over changes to the structure of the country’s judiciary. The European Commission says the plans breach fundamental European values of the rule of law by making it easy for the government to fill courts – including election tribunals – with supportive political appointees.