Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Władysław Bartoszewski defends Poland’s free pass for wanted war criminal
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Władysław Bartoszewski has said today that that there is no such thing as Palestine, according to local reports – despite the fact that Poland has formally recognised Palestine since 1982 and that the Palestinian state has its Polish embassy in Warsaw.
And, asked in an interview about Polish PM Donald Tusk’s promise to Israel that neither Netanyahu nor any other Israeli visitors to the Auschwitz memorial will be detained despite the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, Bartoszewski backed Tusk and described the idea of arresting a wanted war criminal at a war crimes memorial would be ‘obscene’:
It would be quite obscene to arrest a Jew in a place like Auschwitz-Birkenau on the anniversary of the liberation of this cemetery.
Tusk has published a special resolution by his government guaranteeing impunity for Netanyahu and others, assuring them that:
whether it is a prime minister or a minister, whoever comes to the ceremony will be assured of security and will not be detained.
The announcement triggered mass protests by Poles outside Tusk’s office, demanding Netanyahu’s arrest.
Bartoszewski’s denial of Palestine appears to echo comments he made in May last year to Polish Radio Zet:
I taught Middle East history and I know what Israeli-Arab relations were like, because there was no mention of Palestinians until the mid-1960s.
Palestine has existed under that name since Roman times and issued its own documents and stamps as a British mandate. The name ‘Palestinians’ derives from the ‘Philistines’ of the second millennium BCE and genetic studies indicate modern Palestinians are primarily descended from inhabitants of the area dating back at least 3,700 years.
Netanyahu and his regime are responsible for the deaths of more than 200,000 Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians and mostly women and children, the mass destruction of hospitals and other infrastructure vital for life, a deliberate campaign of siege and starvation against the surviving people of Gaza and the targeted murder of medics, aid workers, rescue workers and journalists, often bombed along with their families.
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Just about every one of the poles I worked with were virulently anti zionist, anti israeli, and in some cases outright antisemitic.
Going on that, basis I’ll bet this is extremely unpopular with the polish public. I haven’t clicked on the link about the protest outside tusks office but good on them.
Hiding behind oswiecim (Auschwitz) and other concentration camps being in Poland is no excuse to allow mass murderers made welcome to visit.
Nor does it absolve them of their genocidal crimes. Those former concentration camp sites are NO place of sanctuary. And there should be NO sanctuary for the bastards, anywhere on the planet.
Far from it being ‘obscene’ it’d be poetic justice.
You either abide by international law or be party to genocide. Looks like tusk & co have chosen the latter. They best hope the polish public never have to hold them to account, and the only way to do that’s to arrest any of them rodents the second the airplane doors open.
MMmm interesting Toffee, I get the feeling that the Polish Gov. is being “closely watched” by the CIA/EU and is being forced to make anti-Russia/pro-NATO/pro-Israel/pro-‘free market’ Oligarchy statements to show its obedience to the USA/New World Order. Stymie Starmer, on the other hand, does it all enthusiastically, OF FREE-WILL and for the love of Z*onism.
The obscenity is Israelis whining about the Holocaust whilst ethnically cleansing others in pursuit of a Greater Israel. Bibi should not visit Auschwitz to pay his respects, but to be incarcerated there as a prelude to hanging at Nuremburg.
I wonder how he would react to someone saying that about Poland, a country which disappeared for over a century.
Władysław Bartoszewski – not much of a Foreign Minister, not much of a historian, not much of a man.
Bartoszewski surely belongs in the Law and Justice party (PIS) where history is routinely reinvented.
The chances of Netanyahu being arrested are effectively zero, he should be arrested for war crimes, but he won’t.
The behaviour of the leaders of USA’s vassal states is typified by the satrap mentality of these Polish politicians.