Benjamin Netanyahu’s office sought to diffuse a brewing diplomatic crisis on Friday by insisting Israeli newspapers had misquoted him when covering his remarks on Polish collaboration during the Second World War.
The Israeli Prime Minister told journalists from Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post on Thursday that “the Poles collaborated with the Nazis and I don’t know anyone who was ever sued for such a statement”.
But the remark threatened to spark a fresh spat, reviving a dispute early last year over Poland’s so-called Holocaust law.
The controversial legislation made it a criminal offence to blame the Polish nation for involvement in Nazi crimes. Scholars say many individual Poles assisted German occupiers in rounding up Jews in hiding.
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.
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.
