“Israel is the new Third Reich, and its flag should look exactly like this,” Konrad Berkowicz said as he unfurled the flag in parliament. (Screenshot via X)

(JTA) — A far-right Polish lawmaker sparked outrage on Tuesday when, while speaking in parliament, he displayed a modified Israeli flag that replaced the Star of David with a blue swastika and called Israel “the new Third Reich.”

“Israel is committing genocide before our eyes with particular cruelty,” said Konrad Berkowicz, vice chairman of Poland’s far-right New Hope party, according to Polish Radio.

As he unfurled the altered flag he said, “Israel is the new Third Reich, and its flag should look exactly like this.”

Berkowicz’s stunt — which occurred on Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day — was immediately rebuked by Włodzimierz Czarzasty, who is the speaker of the Sejm, or the lower house of the Polish parliament, saying that “displaying a swastika in the Polish parliament can in no way be justified.”

The incident drew strong condemnations from Polish Jewish leaders.

Patrycja Dołowy, former head of JCC Warsaw and president of the Miszpucha Foundation, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Berkowicz committed a “very, very awful but also stupid act.” She also noted that Berkowicz’s goal “was to get more publicity and to be shown everywhere,” and said it would therefore be “better not to comment on this very widely and not to talk about it.”

Dołowy pointed out that public displays of swastikas, and connecting the swastika with a country, is forbidden under Poland’s criminal law code.

“This is something that should be charged. And maybe he should be in prison,” she said.

In a joint statement, Dariusz Stola, director of the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and Piotr Wiślicki, the Jewish Historical Institute’s chairman of the board, called for “the prosecutor’s office to take decisive steps to punish the politician whose actions — in front of all of Poland and the world — insulted the Polish Parliament.”

“There can be no consent or tolerance for such acts,” the statement continued.

Czarzasty has said he would ask the Sejm’s leadership body to impose a financial penalty on Berkowicz and analyze whether further legal action could be taken.

The Israeli foreign ministry wrote online that it “is hard to imagine a lower depth of contempt towards the Holocaust than this revolting act.”

Meanwhile, Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on X that it “strongly condemns” Berkowicz’s use of the swastika on the Israeli flag.

“Criticism of Israel’s regional policy by the MP does not justify such a gesture, which is deeply offensive not only to Jews and Israelis, but also to all those for whom the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes constitute an important element of memory and identity,” the ministry’s statement read.

This was not Berkowicz’s first time making headlines with a public demonstration related to Jews.

In 2019, during a televised debate, he slipped a kippah on his opponent’s head while she was talking.

A popular slogan among his party’s supporters at the time of that election was “Poland, not Polin,” a reference to the country’s name in Hebrew.

The Social and Cultural Association of Jews in Poland wrote that Berkowicz’s actions were “particularly worrying” because it “was not the first incident of its kind.” Its statement pointed to the recent Sejm tenure of Grzegorz Braun, the antisemitic provocateur who denied that gas chambers were used at Auschwitz and used a fire extinguisher to put out the candles of a menorah in the country’s parliament building.

“The line between words and actual actions can be very thin,” the association wrote. “How many more of these situations have to happen before someone says ‘enough?’”

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Don't just read the Forward - invest in it. Make a matched gift today.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$120 $180 $360 OTHER AMOUNT