Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to diffuse diplomatic crisis over 'Polish Holocaust collaborators' remark

No individual is known to have been prosecuted under the law and the proposed penalties upon conviction have since been watered down.

Mr Netanyahu’s remark prompted Polish officials to threaten a withdrawral from a meeting of the Visegrád Group — composed of leaders from four Central European countries — that was due to be hosted by Israel next week.

“The Prime Minister’s comments concerning Poland were misquoted by the Jerusalem Post, which quickly issued a correction clarifying that an error had been made in the editing of the article,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said on Friday.

Yesterday, answering to @noa_landau, Netanyahu was actually trying to minimize the Polish government's Holocaust revisionism, saying their law which allows for people to sued if they say "the Poles collaborated with the Nazis" has never been used anyway. The answer backfired >>

— Anshel Pfeffer (@AnshelPfeffer) February 15, 2019

Diplomatic sources said Poland now considered the matter closed.

The JC’s Anshel Pfeffer said Mr Netanyahu’s original remark was in fact an attempt to minimise the Polish government’s Holocaust revisionism by pointing out the law had never been used.

But the answer backfired, he added.