BICOM

A meeting of the Visegrád group scheduled to take place in Jerusalem yesterday was cancelled after Poland’s Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, announced that he would not attend.

Poland pulled out of the meeting after a diplomatic row sparked by Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments about Polish collaboration during the Holocaust.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday that the leaders of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia would still visit Jerusalem and hold meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but since Morawiecki would not be attending, it could not be considered a full Visegrád meeting. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said the summit may be rescheduled for later in the year.

The row began when Netanyahu, speaking at the Warsaw Middle East summit said: “Poles cooperated with the Nazis. I know the history and I don’t whitewash it. I bring it up”. He made the comments after being asked by a reporter what he thought about the Polish law which makes it a criminal offence to attribute culpability to the Polish nation for the Holocaust. He later issued a clarification saying he was not referring to the Polish nation or all Polish people.

Newly appointed Foreign Minister Israel Katz then added on Sunday: “I am a son of a Holocaust survivor … The memory of the Holocaust is something we cannot compromise about, it is something clear and we won’t forget or forgive. In diplomacy you try not to offend, but nobody will change the historical truth to do something like that. Poles collaborated with the Nazis, definitely.”

Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki described Katz’s remarks as “racist and unacceptable,” according to Reuters.

The summit was seen as a further sign of close ties between Netanyahu and leaders of central European countries, many of whom have voiced strong support for Israel. Netanyahu has made improving relations with the Visegrád group a strategic priority. The group was formed in the 1990s to bolster military, economic and cultural ties between the four countries as they emerged from decades as satellite states of the Soviet Union.