WARSAW — Poland's president asked the federal government to guarantee Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can select to go to the 80th anniversary of the freedom of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp without worry of arrest under an ICC warrant, a senior assistant stated on Thursday.
The International Criminal Court released arrest warrants in November for Netanyahu and his ex-defence minister, in addition to a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, for supposed war criminal activities and criminal activities versus humankind in the Gaza dispute in between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group.
Israel has actually condemned the warrants for Netanyahu and previous defence chief Yoav Gallant, stating that it has actually acted in self-defence in its air and ground war in Gaza set off by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack on Israel.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that President Andrzej Duda had actually composed Prime Minister Donald Tusk stating Poland must guarantee Netanyahu can be “unrestricted” in going to the Jan. 27 Auschwitz celebration offered the occasion's extraordinary nature.
Malgorzata Paprocka, the head of Duda's workplace, validated to state news firm PAP on Thursday that such a letter had actually been sent out.
“In the viewpoint of the president, there is one concern– specifically due to the fact that it is the Auschwitz camp, everyone from Israel, every agent of the authorities of this nation ought to have the chance to participate in this remarkable occasion.”
lazy” src=”https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best/rockcms/2025-01/250109-duda-netanyahu-mb-1434-15d4c9.jpg” alt=”Andrzej Duda,Benjamin Netanyahu” height=”1591″ width=”2500″/> Polish President Andrzej Duda and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Warsaw in 2019. Czarek Sokolowski/ AP file
She stated Duda was awaiting a reaction. Tusk's workplace did not respond to an emailed ask for remark.
Duda is a conservative nationalist who has actually had tense relations with Tusk's centrist, pro-European federal government given that it took workplace in December 2023.
Asked by state-run news channel TVP Info whether Netanyahu might rely on an assurance from Poland that he would not be apprehended, Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski stated: “There is no such subject, due to the fact that Mr Netanyahu is not pertaining to Europe”.
A representative for Netanyahu, like Duda on the tough right of the political spectrum, decreased to comment. Netanyahu has not stated whether he would go to the Auschwitz celebration. He has actually gone to previous anniversary occasions at Auschwitz.
Over 1.1 million individuals, primarily Jews, died in gas chambers or from hunger, cold and illness at Auschwitz, which Nazi Germany established in inhabited Poland throughout World War Two.
More than 3 countless Poland's 3.2 million Jews were killed by the Nazis, representing about half of the Jews eliminated in the Holocaust.
Reuters
