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Israel Expects to Settle Row Over Polish 'Holocaust Bill'

TEL AVIV, (Sputnik) - Israel expects to resolve all disagreements with Poland over the law that criminalizes statements accusing Poles of complicity in the Holocaust, while assessing relations between the two countries as friendly, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said Wednesday.
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"We look forward to a constructive and useful dialogue tomorrow with the Polish delegation on the Polish law. Poland and Israel are friends and we hope to resolve all disagreements in a friendly manner," Nahshon wrote on Twitter.

On Thursday, a Polish delegation led by the Undersecretary of State for Security, Consular Affairs and Eastern Policy Bartosz Cichocki is expected to discuss the contentious legislation with Israeli counterparts. The Israeli delegation will be comprised of diplomats, historians, attorneys and personnel from the World Holocaust Remembrance Center.

Israel demands to exempt the law provisions stipulating fines and imprisonment of up to three years for claims that Poles or the Polish Republic bore responsibility or were complicit in the crimes committed by the Third Reich or any other crimes against peace and humanity, as well as war crimes.

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While citing multiple cases of persecution of Jews by Poles both in the war and in the post-war period, the Israeli leadership has consistently reiterated that the law distorts the historical truth, seeks to rehabilitate criminals and their accomplices and goes against freedoms of research and expression.

On February 6, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed the piece of legislation. After the signing ceremony, the president sent the bill to the Constitutional Court for consideration. On Monday, the Polish Justice Ministry stated that though the court had not ruled on the issue so far, the legislation was expected to come into effect on Thursday.

Along with criminalizing statements accusing Poles of complicity in the Holocaust, the law also outlaws propaganda of Ukrainian nationalist ideology, which has caused backlash from the Ukrainian side.

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