Poland's senate on Thursday passed a controversial Holocaust bill aimed at defending the country's image abroad, prompting a chorus of dismay from Israel, the US and the EU and also angering Ukraine. The legislation set fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone who refers to Nazi German death camps as Polish or accuses Poland of complicity in the Third Reich's crimes.
But the bill, which the senate passed by 57 votes to 23 in the early hours of Thursday morning, has sparked a furious response in Israel and Ukraine, both of whom have accused Warsaw of trying to re-write history. Israel has warned that the legislation could serve to deny the involvement of individual Poles in Nazi Germany's extermination of Jews, with the vote prompting a sharp rebuke from the foreign ministry. "Israel categorically opposes the Polish senate decision," said foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon. "Israel views with utmost gravity any attempt to challenge historical truth. No law will change the facts."
The legislation was approved by the lower house of parliament on Friday, prompting a flurry of Israeli efforts to have the bill dropped. "We have no tolerance for the distortion of the truth and rewriting history or denying the Holocaust," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
The move to criminalise anyone using the term "Polish death camps" also provoked a sharp rebuke from EU president and former Polish premier Donald Tusk.