Postponement of Israeli V4 summit proves group's unity - PM
The decision to postpone the planned Visegrad Group (V4) summit in Jerusalem shows that the V4 countries are united and refuse to accept unfounded, racist attacks on any of them, PM Mateusz Morawiecki said on Monday.
"This morning I informed the prime ministers of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia about our position regarding the Visegrad Group summit. The important decision to postpone the meeting (...) shows that the V4 group is united, and that we won't agree to unfounded racist attacks on any of us," Morawiecki tweeted on Monday afternoon.
A Visegrad Group summit scheduled on Monday and Tuesday in Jerusalem has been cancelled on Morawiecki initiative. Morawiecki announced the withdrawal of the Polish delegation from the summit on Monday morning.
The heads of government of the Visegrad Group (V4, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) cancelled the Jerusalem summit in a gesture of solidarity with Poland and decided to hold the meeting after the parliamentary elections in Israel.
The decision was the result of a statement on Sunday by acting Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, referring to words ascribed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he mentioned that Poles had collaborated with Nazi Germans during the Second World War.
"Our prime minister expressed himself clearly," Katz said. "I am a son of Holocaust survivors (...) The memory of the Holocaust is something we cannot compromise about, it is something clear and we won’t forget or forgive. Poles collaborated with the Nazis, and as (Israeli's former prime minister - PAP) Yitzhak Shamir, whose father was murdered by Poles, said, they suckle anti-Semitism with their mother’s milk."
Following Katz's remarks, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Israeli Ambassador to Poland Anna Azari on Monday.
On Monday afternoon, Morawiecki suggested the Israeli side's remarks may have been motivated by the ongoing election campaign in Israel.
"I have been warning them (other V4 countries - PAP) that there is an election campaign in Israel, ahead of the elections scheduled for early April. That is this factor that raises the temperature of the political dispute, so there is a risk that our friends from the Visegrad Group will be attacked, will be insulted, just as Israel's foreign minister, Mr. Katz, in his racist statement, tried to offend Poles by falsifying history," Morawiecki said.
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz on Monday in Brussels called Katz's words "unacceptable", and stressed that Poland awaited Israel's withdrawal from the statements.
"We believe these statements to be unacceptable, (...) we believe they nurture anti-Polish and anti-Semitic moods, are racist in character and serve neither reconcilement nor, generally speaking, Polish-Israeli relations," Czaputowicz observed.
According to Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk, Katz's remarks were "shameful and slanderous," and warranted a "decided and unambiguous" response by Israel. (PAP)
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