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Poland pulls out of Jerusalem summit over Israeli remarks on collaboration during the Holocaust

Benjamin Netanyahu and new foreign minister Yisrael Katz both spoke over the weekend about the Polish role in the Second World War

February 18, 2019 11:22
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu in Warsaw on Thursday
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Poland is pulling out of a key summit of Eastern European countries convened in Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu after a fresh spat broke out between the two countries over the Holocaust.

Members of the Visegrád Group — which includes representatives from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia as well as Poland — were due to meet in Jerusalem this week, following months of diplomatic maneuverers by the Israeli Prime Minister.

But Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Sunday he would not attend the summit after Mr Netanyahu remarked that “Poles had cooperated with the Nazis” during the Second World War.

On Monday, Mr Morawiecki confirmed his country would send no delegation at all after Yisrael Katz, Israel's newly-appointed foreign minister, said Poles had “collaborated with the Nazis” and “sucked antisemitism from their mothers' milk”.