Poland's President sparks row with Israel over seized property

WARSAW • Poland's President has decided to sign a Bill that would set limits on the ability of Jews to recover property seized by Nazi German occupiers and retained by post-war communist rulers, drawing fury from Israel, which branded the law anti-Semitic.

"I made a decision today on the Act, which in recent months was the subject of a lively and loud debate at home and abroad," Mr Andrzej Duda said in a statement published on Saturday.

"After an in-depth analysis, I have decided to sign the amendment."

Before World War II, Poland had been home to one of the world's biggest Jewish communities. But it was almost entirely wiped out by the Nazis, and Jewish former property owners and their descendants have been campaigning for compensation.

Up to now, Jewish expatriates or their descendants could make a claim that a property had been seized illegally and demand its return, but Polish officials argued that this was causing uncertainty over property ownership.

In 2015, Poland's Constitutional Tribunal ruled that there should be specific deadlines after which administrative decisions over property titles could no longer be challenged.

Changes to the law were adopted by the Polish Parliament last week. The Bill sets a 30-year limit for restitution claims.

Since confiscations mostly occurred during the communist era in the aftermath of the war, the law will effectively block many possible claims.

The issue of Jewish property rights in Poland is further complicated because, unlike other European Union states, it has not created a fund to give compensation to people whose property was seized.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett condemned the law and said Israel would not simply stand by at its approval.

"It is a shameful decision and a disgraceful contempt for the memory of the Holocaust," he said in a statement.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said: "Poland today, for the first time, approved an anti-Semitic and immoral law."

In response, the head of Israel's embassy in Warsaw was being called back immediately, he said.

"Poland has tonight become an anti-democratic, non-liberal country that does not honour the greatest tragedy in human history," he said in a statement.

A new ambassador to Warsaw will not be sent at this stage, he added.

Mr Lapid also suggested that Poland's ambassador to Israel extend his vacation and not return to the country.

"He should use the time he has on his hands to explain to the Poles what the Holocaust means to Israel's citizens and the extent to which we will not tolerate contempt for the memory of those who perished and for the memory of the Holocaust. It will not stop here," Mr Lapid said.

Israel was discussing further steps with the United States, he added.

The Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it disapproves of the Israeli Foreign Ministry's behaviour, adding that the government "will take appropriate political and diplomatic actions, bearing in mind the principle of symmetry in bilateral relations".

"The steps taken by Israel are seriously damaging our relationship," the ministry also said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last Thursday that Washington was deeply concerned that the Polish Parliament had passed the Bill, and urged Mr Duda not to sign it into law.

Washington is one of Warsaw's most important allies, but relations between the two sides have been strained by the property issue, as well as other issues such as plans to introduce changes that the opposition says aim to silence a US-owned news channel critical of the government.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE