Poland has committed to enforcing arrest warrants issued in November against leaders of the Jewish state by the International Criminal Court (ICC). In November, Netanyahu was charged, along with former defense minister Yoav Gallant, on false allegations that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza during its war against Hamas terrorists.
According to the Jerusalem Post, all 27 European Union states that signed the Rome Statute are legally required to comply with ICC arrest warrants. Only Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that Netanyahu would not be arrested if he came to visit, going so far as to invite Netanyahu to his country.
Multiple EU states, including Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Lithuania, and Slovenia have confirmed they would arrest Netanyahu, regardless of diplomatic immunity, if he visits their countries.
Some states that initially said they would arrest Netanyahu have now reversed their decisions, such as France, which originally said it would comply with the arrest warrants, but following negotiations for a ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, France said that Netanyahu would be protected by diplomatic immunity.
Bartoszewski made the comments to the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita while discussing preparations for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the most infamous death camp that is scheduled for January 27. As a result of the threats, Education Minister Yoav Kisch will be the only Israeli government representative at the commemoration.
According to Rzeczpospolita, Warsaw was enforcing the warrants in hopes that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be brought before the court, which had a warrant issued against him in 2022 for the alleged kidnapping of Ukrainian children from areas of occupied Ukraine.
In 2018, Poland's Senate approved a controversial bill that made it illegal to accuse the state of complicity in the Holocaust despite the country’s role in Nazi atrocities attested to this day by the remnants of concentration camps like Auschwitz.
The bill states "whoever accuses, publicly and against the facts, the Polish nation, or the Polish state, of being responsible or complicit in the Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich … shall be subject to a fine or a penalty of imprisonment of up to three years.” The bill triggered an international outcry, especially from Jews. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described it as an attempt to rewrite history and deny the Holocaust.
Three million Polish Jews were murdered in the Holocaust after the country was occupied by Nazi Germany. Efraim Zuroff with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the number of Polish collaborators with the Nazis runs into "many thousands.”
He told The Times of Israel, "The Polish state was not complicit in the Holocaust, but many Poles were.”
