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Poland, Israel take steps to improve relations

July 12, 2022

The presidents of both countries announced the shift as they attempt to restore diplomatic ties that frayed after the passage of a Polish law blocking restitution.

https://p.dw.com/p/4E2Eg
Ambassador of Israel to Poland Yacov Livne and Polish president Andrzej Duda attend the March of the Living to mark Israel s national Holocaust Remembrance Day
Israel's ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne, and Polish president Andrzej Duda attended the March of the Living to mark Israel s national Holocaust Remembrance Day in AprilImage: Lukasz Kalinowski/Eastnews/IMAGO

Poland and Israel have announced that they will attempt to restore frayed diplomatic ties after a political spat that saw the countries pull their respective ambassadors in 2021.

Polish President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday wrote on Twitter: "We agreed with President Isaac Herzog that it was time to get back to normal relations. First step taken. Ambassador Yacov Livne submitted his credentials today. President Herzog asked me to restore the Polish Ambassador to Israel. I hope it will happen soon."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog confirmed Duda's statement with a Twitter announcement of his own. "Thank you President Andrzej Duda for receiving Ambassador Yacov Livne's credentials: an important first step to advancing Israeli-Polish relations," he wrote. "I hope to receive the letters of credence of the new Polish ambassador in Israel soon."

The news comes after nearly a year of diplomatic bickering.

Row over law

In August 2021, Israel recalled its ambassador to Warsaw after Poland's Parliament passed a Holocaust restitution bill.

The legislation placed a 30-year statute of limitations on restitution claims by Jewish individuals and their relatives seeking to regain properties seized from them during the Holocaust. 

It put a further strain on Polish-Israeli relations following tensions between the countries over a 2018 law that criminalized speech that suggested the complicity of Poles in the Holocaust.

Passage of the 2021 law drew a furious response from Israel, with then Foreign Minister Yair Lapid — now the prime minister — lambasting Poland as "an anti-democratic and illiberal country that does not honor the greatest tragedy in human history."

Warsaw justified the law by saying it would not hamper claims that are processed through courts. 

Poland also answered Israel's move by withdrawing its ambassador to Tel Aviv.

The countries have recently begun cooperating again, most notably regarding Ukrainian refugees. Lapid, for instance, thanked Warsaw for its efforts in rescuing Jews displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  

The presidential administration in Warsaw reports that Duda and Herzog spoke by telephone last week, with both expressing hope that questions surrounding relations between the countries could be resolved through, "honest and open dialogue held in the spirit of mutual respect."

Jewish life 75 years after Auschwitz

js/fb (AFP, AP, dpa)