Poland Cancels Israeli Minister’s Visit After He Vowed To Tell ‘Truth’ About Holocaust
People visiting Auschwitz. Image by Getty
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Poland cancelled a scheduled visit by Israel’s Education Minister Naftali Bennett, after he said he would use the opportunity to tell the Polish people the “truth” about Poland and the Holocaust.
Bennett said that while in Poland he was “determined to say explicitly what history has already proved — the Polish nation had a proven involvement in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust,” Bennett said Monday in announcing his trip that had been planned for later in the week. “I am going to speak truth, where the truth took place,” he said.
Bennett had been scheduled to speak to Polish students and to meet with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and Higher Education in Poland, Jarosław Gowin, Ynet reported. He was also to meet with Holocaust survivors and Righteous Among the Nations living in Poland. The visit was not coordinated with the Foreign Ministry, Haaretz reported.
Hours after Bennett announced the visit, Poland cancelled the visit, citing Bennett’s remarks.
“The government of Poland canceled my visit, because I mentioned the crimes of its people. I am honored,” Bennett said in a statement, which also was published on his Facebook page along with a photo of a past visit to Auschwitz.
The incident comes amid a standoff between Poland and Israel over legislation passed in both houses of the Polish Parliament which would criminalize rhetoric blaming Poland for Nazi crimes, including calling death camps set up on Polish soil by the Nazis “Polish death camps.” Poland’s president must still sign the legislation into law.
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