US State Department urges dialogue between Poland, Israel: report

A spat flared up after Israel’s interim foreign minister reportedly claimed that Poles “suckled anti-Semitism with their mother’s milk.”

Israel Katz also reportedly accused “many Poles” of collaborating with the German Nazis during the Holocaust.

The US State Department said that both Israel and Poland were important friends and allies of America, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Warsaw said on Tuesday there was no place in Polish-Israeli relations for offensive comments.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki earlier in the week announced that Warsaw was pulling out of a regional summit in Jerusalem.

The meeting of the Visegrad Group, a regional cooperation platform which brings together Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, was called off.

Morawiecki slammed Katz for “reprehensible, unacceptable and simply racist words.”

Morawiecki told reporters: “This is an example of racist anti-Polonism.” He pointed out that Poles had saved a huge number of Jews after Nazi Germany instigated the Holocaust.

The efforts of thousands of Poles who risked their lives by helping Jews during World War II have been recognised by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial.

(pk)

Source: IAR/PAP