Israel and Poland in the diplomatic queue over the Holocaust property bill Israel News

The two countries are calling each other envoys over Polish law that could block World War II return requests.

Israel has called on the Polish ambassador to express “deep despair” because critics say it will make it more difficult for Jews to recover goods lost in World War II, a move that provoked a backlash from Warsaw.

The draft law on prescriptions for claims for repossession of property was approved by the lower house of the Polish parliament on Wednesday, and received a furious response from Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who called it “shameful.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that the law could affect up to 90% of requests for the return of Holocaust survivors and their descendants’ property.

“This is not a historical debate about the responsibility of the Holocaust, with the moral debt of Poland to its citizens and to those who stole property during the Holocaust and the communist regime,” the document says.

The Polish Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, summoned Israel’s business manager on Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski said on Sunday.

According to Jablonski, Warsaw would like to break the record for legislation.

Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon, Israel’s head of business, “is called … and we will explain in a decisive and truthful way what it is,” the Polish diplomat told state television TVP.

“We believe that what we are unfortunately dealing with here is the situation that some Israeli politicians are exploiting for internal political purposes,” he added.

The Israeli embassy in Warsaw tweeted on Thursday that “this immoral law will seriously affect relations between our countries.”

The Polish Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the imposition of deadlines “would lead to the elimination of large-scale fraud and irregularities”.

“The new regulations do not in any way limit the possibility of bringing civil claims for damages, regardless of the nationality or origin of the complainant,” he added.

Compensation campaign

Almost all Polish Jews, about three million people, were exterminated in the Nazi Holocaust. Former Jewish property owners and their descendants have been campaigning for compensation from Poland since the fall of communism in 1989. Jewish property seized by the Nazis was held by post-war communist authorities.

The law would establish a 2015 Constitutional Court ruling that there should be a time limit for challenging decisions of maladministration. The law provides for a period of 30 years.

The legacy of World War II and related Polish legislation has previously tightened ties between Poland and Israel.

Thousands of Poles risked their lives to protect their Jewish neighbors in the war. According to studies published since 1989, thousands of Jews were also killed or accused by German occupiers of what they hid.

In 2018 the government forced the repeal and removal of parts of the Holocaust law, which angered people who suggested the nation was complicit in Nazi crimes, which angered the United States and Israel.