Demonstrators burn flares and wave Polish flags during the annual march to commemorate Poland’s National Independence Day in Warsaw. (photo credit: AGENCJA GAZETA/ADAM STEPIEN VIA REUTERS)
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin’s speech during the April 12th March of the Living was assailed by far-right polish activist Krzysztof Bosak, who argued on Twitter on Tuesday that what Rivlin said is ‘unacceptable’ and suggested he should be sued.
„Bosak said it would be unacceptable if Rivlin asserted that Poland bears any responsibility for the Holocaust. (…) National Movement wants the nature of the president’s remarks to be clarified, he said”-depesza @AP nt. naszej reakcji ws. @PresidentRuvi:https://t.co/dT6R1RHpBb
— Krzysztof Bosak (@krzysztofbosak) April 17, 2018
In his speech marking Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Israeli head of state said that ”We are a nation that remembers, our memory is patient. Engraved in our memory are those who murdered and then inherited, those who, after the war had ended, thought that Jewish blood was cheap and forsaken and so they slaughtered those Jews who returned to their homes.”
Rivlin added that the Jewish nation also remembers those who risked their lives and the lives of their loved ones to help Jews, many Jews were ”…betrayed by the people among whom they lived, in France, Holland and Belgium. They were murdered by Ukrainians, Lithuanians and, yes, also Poles.”
Bosak, who is a member of the radical right-wing National Movement, said if the Israeli president meant to assert Poland bears any responsibility to the Holocaust, that would be ”unacceptable.”
This claim seems to refer to the controversial new Polish law that makes such an accusation a punishable crime.
The National Movement turned to the Polish high court Tuesday, urging it to begin a process of inquiry into whether Rivlin might be guilty of such a violation.
On Twitter, the National Movement stated that ”today we filed a notice of suspicion of committing the crime of attributing responsibility of Nazi crimes to the Polish Nation [done] by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin!”
The new Polish law, which forbids making the assertion that the Polish nation was responsible for Jewish suffering during World War II, caused a great deal of tension in Israeli-Polish relations. Many on the Israeli side have claimed the law whitewashes the various actions taken by Poles under Nazi occupation. Many poles, on the other hand, claim that for too long, Poles have been seen by many Jewish people as eager helpers of the Nazis, thus pushing aside Polish suffering and efforts to aid Jewish-Poles during WWII.
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