Poland’s Foreign Ministry has summoned Israeli Ambassador Yacov Livne after he criticized its government’s policies that led to the cancellation of Israeli high school trips to the concentration camps this summer.
“I regret that Ambassador @YacovLivne has chosen to communicate with @MSZ_RP through the media and public speeches – in addition misleading the public as to why the trips are not taking place,” Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski tweeted on Friday.
“To clarify the situation, he will be summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday.” Due to the Shimini Atzeret holiday this week, however, the ambassador will likely be summoned on Wednesday.
Israel and Poland have sought to maintain strong relations, despite a dispute in recent years over the Holocaust, with Warsaw in 2018 passing legislation against speaking of Polish complicity in the death of Jews during World War II.
Poland has said that the reason for the cancellation of the trips was because its rules bar Israeli security guards accompanying the students.
Stanowisko @MSZ_RP ws. przyjazdów młodzieży do Polski:1. Jesteśmy gotowi do przyjęcia grup choćby od jutra.2. Zasady bezpieczeństwa powinny być takie same jak w innych podobnych krajach, tj. bez uzbrojonej ochrony. Polska powinna być traktowana wg tego samego standardu.
— Paweł Jabłoński (@paweljabIonski) October 14, 2022
Holocaust education trips to Poland for Israeli students were suspended earlier this year because armed guards had accompanied the students, a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed to Reuters.
Israel has said that in addition, Warsaw also tried to dictate the educational content of the trips.
Poland denies Israeli trips to commemorate Sobibor uprising
In June, Prime Minister Yair Lapid told reporters that “they [the Poles] can’t tell us what to teach Israeli children. The relations between Israel and Poland were harmed because of Polish laws about the Holocaust.”
“The first [law] is from 2018 that prohibits discussing what Poles did in the Holocaust – not all of them – and the second is against restitution,” Lapid said. At the time he spoke, he was solely the foreign minister.
Last week, Livne criticized the Polish government on the issue of the trips during the commemoration of an uprising at the Sobibor Nazi extermination camp, Polish media reports said.
Jablonski on Friday said there had been no change in Poland’s position regarding the trips since August.
“We are ready to welcome [Israeli] groups even from tomorrow. Security rules should be the same as in other similar countries, i.e. no armed protection. Poland should be treated according to the same standard,” Jablonski tweeted.
"We are ready to welcome (Israeli) groups even from tomorrow. Security rules should be the same as in other similar countries, i.e. no armed protection. Poland should be treated according to the same standard."
Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski