Israel PM Netanyahu Won’t Attend Auschwitz Liberation 80th Anniversary Event After Poland Declares It Will Arrest Leader of Jewish State

Wise choice. Poland’s history of antisemitism is awful. Poles murdered Jews during the Holocaust with gusto and even without Nazi orders.

How sad it has come to this!

PM @netanyahu will not attend Auschwitz liberation 80th anniversary event, because Poland insists it would arrest leader of Jewish state over ICC warrants.

Perhaps Poland has not fully learnt lessons of the Holocaust, or their own responsibility … pic.twitter.com/wcDVurfPVS

— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) December 20, 2024

Poland Says It Would Arrest Netanyahu If He Attends the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz

‘We are obliged to respect the provisions of the International Criminal Court,’ the country’s deputy foreign minister tells a Polish newspaper.

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By: Benny Avni, NY Sun, Dec. 20, 2024:

In a first test case for warrants issued by a global court at Hague, Poland is announcing it would arrest Prime Minister Netanayahu of Israel if he attends the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where an estimated 1 million Jews perished as part of the genocidal Nazi war against them.

“We are obliged to respect the provisions of the International Criminal Court,” Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Władysław Bartoszewski, who is charged with organizing the ceremony, claimed Friday, according to the Polish-language newspaper Rzeczpospolita. Dozens of world leaders are expected to attend the January 27 ceremony.

The Polish newspaper added that Mr. Netanayhu has not to date applied to participate in the ceremony. Dozens of heads of state or government are expected to come to the event, including some of Europe’s most notable kings and presidents. An Israeli source tells the Sun that no decision has been made yet on whether President Herzog, who is the official head of state, would attend.

Why then, would a high-ranking Warsaw official rush to announce Poland’s intention to arrest the prime minister of the Jewish state, even before he asked to visit the country? “We hope that Vladimir Putin will finally stand before the ICC. That is why we must comply with the Tribunal’s rulings,” an unidentified official told Rzeczpospolita.

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The ICC issued an arrest warrant against President Putin in March 2023, citing allegations of responsibility for war crimes committed by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Russia has not signed the Rome Statute that established the Hague-based international court to try war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ukraine, which is yet to ratify the Rome Statute, has agreed to cooperate with the ICC in gathering evidence against Mr. Putin.

In November, three ICC judges agreed with a request made by the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, to issue an arrest warrant against Mr. Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant. Israel is not a member of the court at Hague. Yet, the ICC judges argued it has jurisdiction over alleged crimes in Gaza, which it considers part of an occupied territory of one of its members, the state of Palestine.

America, which is also not a court member, denounced the ICC decision. President Biden called it “outrageous” and Congress is planning to issue sanctions against ICC officials. Several Republican legislators also demand to sanction countries that cooperate with Hague in executing the arrest warrants.