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PM: ISRAEL WON'T TOLERATE POLAND 'DISTORTING TRUTH OR RE-WRITING HISTORY'

Israel has zero tolerance for “distorting the truth, rewriting history or denying the Holocaust,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at Sunday's cabinet meeting, addressing the controversy over the draft bill that passed the lower house of Poland's parliament on Friday making it illegal to attribute complicity in the Holocaust to the “Polish nation” or to use terms such as “Polish death camps.”

Netanyahu said that Israel's ambassador to Poland, Anna Azaria, made Israel's firm position known to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki at a memorial ceremony marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Auschwitz on Saturday night.

Israelis condemn Polish law that bans using the phrase "Polish death camps"

"Every day, and especially on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember three things,” Netanyahu said. “First, the six million of our brothers and sisters who were annihilated in the Nazi inferno; Second, the price humanity paid for failing to stand up on time and with the proper strength against a murderous ideology; And thirdly, the constant need to continue and nurture the strength of the State of Israel vis-à-vis the regimes of modern fanaticism.”

Unlike in the past, Netanyahu said, “We now have our own state; a strong state with the ability to defend ourselves by ourselves. This is, to me, the most important lesson of the Holocaust.”

Piotr Kozlowski, the deputy head of Poland's embassy, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Sunday morning and heard similar messages from Rodica Radian-Gordon, the ministry's deputy director-general for Europe, and Akiva Tor, the head of the Foreign Ministry's bureau for World Jewish Affairs and World Religions.

Radian-Gordin and Tor said that the bill will not help those trying to uncover the historical truth, could harm freedom of research into the Holocaust, and could prevent an honest discussion about the history of World War II. Likewise, they objected to the timing of the bill's passage in the lower house of parliament: the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The two made it clear that Israel expected the Polish government to change the wording of the legislation before its final approval, and to dialogue with Israel on the matter.

Koslowski told reporters afterward, “We are not trying to erase history, but rather trying to uphold the truth.” He said that he heard what he “expected.”

Poland’s Ambassador to Israel Jacek Chodorowicz is not presently in the country.

Following harsh criticism from Israel about the bill, Morawiecki tweeted in English Saturday night that “Auschwitz is the most bitter lesson on how evil ideologies can lead to hell on earth. Jews, Poles, and all victims should be guardians of the memory of all who were murdered by German Nazis. Auschwitz-Birkenau is not a Polish name, and Arbeit Macht Frei is not a Polish phrase.”

Auschwitz is the most bitter lesson on how evil ideologies can lead to hell on earth. Jews, Poles, and all victims should be guardians of the memory of all who were murdered by German Nazis. Auschwitz-Birkenau is not a Polish name, and Arbeit Macht Frei is not a Polish phrase.