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It's quite obvious that antisemitism is growing rapidly in Europe, but for it to become national policy is more than a bit disturbing.
‘Outrageous thievery’ – Israeli, US lawmakers slam
Polish restitution law
August 12, 2021
‘Outrageous thievery’ – Israeli, US lawmakers slam Polish restitution lawThe Polish parliament
(Twitter/TRT World Now/Screenshot)
Israeli politicians outraged as Polish law will likely end claims for Jews
who lost property during the Holocaust and its aftermath.
UPDATE Aug 14, 2021 President Duda signed the bill into law today!
By Lauren Marcus,
World Israel News
Israeli lawmakers spoke out against a new restitution law passed by Poland’s parliament on Wednesday, which would likely dismiss scores of pending claims stemming from Holocaust and Communist-era property confiscation.
After President Andrzej Duda signs off on the law, Poland will officially no longer consider claims for property confiscated more than 30 years ago, and won’t allow property confiscations which occurred longer than 10 years ago to be reversed.
The legislation has outraged Israeli politicians, who argue that the law would prevent Holocaust survivors and their descendants from claiming compensation for property for which they are the rightful heirs.
Knesset Speaker Micky Levy called the law an act of “outrageous thievery” on Twitter, adding that he was cancelling efforts to create a Polish-Israeli inter-parliamentary friendship group and that the law “desecrates the memory of the Holocaust” and harms ties between the two nations.
He called on Duda to veto the law.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said the law is “an attempt to rewrite history, and to promote compromises and concessions at the expense of the memory of the] Holocaust…and the rights of Holocaust victims.”
“Poland knows what the right thing to do is — repeal the law.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement critical of the law on Wednesday.
Blinken said the U.S. is “deeply concerned that Poland’s parliament passed legislation today severely restricting the process for Holocaust survivors and their families, as well as other Jewish and non-Jewish property owners, to obtain restitution for property wrongfully confiscated during Poland’s communist era.”
Commenting on Blinken’s statement, Lapid said that he was holding debates with officials from the US government on the appropriate response to Poland’s legislation. “This won’t be tolerated,” he noted. “Poland cannot continue to hurt the memory of the victims.”
Gideon Taylor, Chairman of Operations of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, released a statement condemning the law, saying that it harms both Jews and non-Jews whose property was illegitimately seized by the Polish government.
“If this bill is signed into law by President Duda, the Polish Government will have effectively legally foreclosed the possibility for rightful owners to secure redress for what was taken from them,” he said.
Touching on Polish concerns that the nation is unfairly blamed for Germany’s actions during World War II, Taylor noted that “Poland is, of course, not responsible for what Nazi Germany did during the Holocaust.
“However, more than 30 years after the fall of Communism, Poland still benefits from this wrongfully acquired property.”
French president boycotts UN conference on racism over
‘history of anti-Semitic remarks’
13 Aug, 2021 11:26
FILE PHOTO. © AFP / MOHAMED EL-SHAHED
President Emmanuel Macron’s office announced on Friday that he and his administration will skip next month’s United Nations conference on racism over concerns about “a history of anti-Semitic remarks” made at the event.
“Concerned by a history of anti-Semitic remarks made at the U.N. conference on racism, known as the Durban conference, the President of the Republic has decided that France will not participate in the follow-up conference to be held this year,” the statement from his office read.
France is the latest nation to boycott the 20th anniversary of the 2001 World Conference against Racism (WCAR). Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US have all announced they will boycott the UN’s event.
The UK’s reasoning was the same as France’s, with “historic concerns regarding anti-Semitism” resulting in the decision to skip the event. Canada and the US explicitly claimed that the Durban Review Conference expresses “anti-Israel sentiment,” which Canadian and American officials could not condone by attending. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison accused the UN even of pushing “one-sided and contention language that singles out Israel,” stating that Canberra “will not associate” itself with such a conference.
This is not the first time that the event has been boycotted by numerous countries, with Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherland, New Zealand, and Poland refusing to attend in 2009, and the number of nations absent in 2011 rising to 14.
The WCAR resulted in the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, committing nations to tackle racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance at a national, regional, and international level.
It's a little disturbing that France is the only EU country that has pulled out of Durban, as yet. I'm sure Poland will not pull out.
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