Polish Ambassador Assaulted In ‘Racial Attack’ In Israel, Polish Government Demands Answers

In January 2018, Poland was made the center of a controversy generated by Israeli lobbying groups, Jewish groups, and various members in the Israeli government alongside various western media outlets for promoting the use of the term “Polish Death Camps” to describe the military installations established by Germany in occupied Poland during World War II where eugenics was practiced. Poland refused to submit to this term, as the “controversy” began by a Polish law going through her Parliament banning the use of the term “Polish death camps” as it is historically inaccurate and suggests that Poland was responsible for the injuries inflicted upon her by German National Socialists. While there were Jews and Israelis in Israel and abroad, including the chief rabbi of Poland, who said that Poland’s actions were a reflection of historical reality and not related to any sort of racially-motivated hatred, many insisted on saying this law was an act of “anti-semitism.”

Shoebat.com covered the story extensively. Our conclusions found no indications of racially-motivated hatred among the Polish government’s motivation for the law, but did uncover other interesting details. This was the the idea of “Polish death camps” was post-World War II propaganda developed by neo-nazis in order to discredit Poland. This also raised another historically verifiable and well-documented but seldom never discussed issue, which is the tremendous amount of collaboration between Jews and German National Socialists against Poland.

While most of the public clamor ceased, the controversy never disappeared, and has continued albeit quietly. It has now been brought to the public view again after a Polish diplomat was assaulted in his car by an Israeli man in what the Polish government has said is a ‘racial attack’ and is demanding answers from the Israeli government:

Poland’s prime minister on Wednesday condemned what he described as a “xenophobic” assault on the country’s ambassador to Israel, who was spat at on a Tel Aviv street at a time of rising tensions between the two nations.

Israeli officials expressed shock at the assault on Marek Magierowski on Tuesday afternoon and were investigating the incident. Israeli police said they had detained and released a 65-year-old man suspected of approaching the ambassador, who was sitting in his car, and spitting at him.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the suspect remained under house arrest until Thursday and is “not permitted to be in the area of the Polish embassy for 30 days.” The suspect’s motives remain unclear.

The incident comes amid a bitter standoff between Poland and Israel over how to remember the Holocaust and over demands that Poland pay reparations for former Jewish properties that were seized by Nazi Germany and later nationalized by Poland’s communist regime.

Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari was summoned to the Polish Foreign Ministry in Warsaw on Wednesday over the incident. Michal Dworczyk, the head of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s office, said the Polish government expects the perpetrator to be punished.

Morawiecki expressed his concern at what he described as a “racist” attack.

“Poland strongly condemns this xenophobic act of aggression. Violence against diplomats or any other citizens should never be tolerated,” Morawiecki said.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon, said the assault was being investigated and that “we will update our Polish friends” on what is found.

“Israel expresses its full sympathy with the Polish ambassador and shock at the attack,” Nahshon said. “This is a top priority to us, as we are fully committed to diplomats’ safety and security.”

Ties between the two countries became strained in January 2018 when Poland passed a law that criminalized blaming the Polish nation for the crimes of Nazi Germany during World War II. Poland’s conservative nationalist government described it as an effort to end linguistic formulations, such as “Polish death camps,” to refer to the death camps that Germans operated on occupied Polish territory during the war.

However, many people in Israel felt it was an attempt by the Polish government to repress debate and scholarship looking at the cases of those Poles who helped the Nazis in killing Jews during the occupation, and even after the war ended.

The law was softened but bad feelings have continued to simmer, with tensions coming to the surface from time to time.

Earlier this week the Polish government canceled a visit by an Israeli delegation, saying the Israeli government made last-minute changes that suggested it would focus on the issue of the restitution of former Jewish property. The Polish government insists that the matter is closed and that because it lost so much in the war it will pay nothing. (source, source)

According to the Times of Israel, the man who attacked the diplomat said he did it because a security guard insulted him, despite there being no other proof than his assertions, and that because of it he “lost control”:

Magierowski said that he was outside the embassy building on Soutine Street when a man assaulted him and shouted at him.

The ambassador said that all he could make out from the shouting was “Polish, Polish,” but managed to take a picture of the attacker and his vehicle, which he then handed over to police.

Police on Wednesday morning said they had arrested a man whom they suspect spat at the ambassador’s car.

The man Arik Lederman, 65, said later that an embassy guard addressed him as a “Zhid” when he visited the embassy, and that the ambassador’s car beeped at him. His lawyer said he had apologized for the incident, and that he had no idea that the ambassador was in the car.

A Channel 12 report said Lederman apparently briefly “lost control” after being insulted, and banged on the roof of the ambassador’s car, and that the ambassador then wound down the window to photograph him. Lederman then opened the door and spat in the ambassador’s face, the TV report said. (source, source)

One does not simply “lose control” over oneself.

It will be interesting to see how this case develops.