Polish PM Donald Tusk says Israeli prime minister won’t be detained regardless of ICC arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Polish authorities has adopted a decision promising that senior Israeli officers – together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – can freely journey to Poland for the eightieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau focus camp later this month.
Netanyahu faces an arrest warrant issued by the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC) for alleged struggle crimes in Israel’s struggle on Gaza.
“The Polish authorities treats the protected participation of the leaders of Israel within the commemorations on January 27, 2025, as a part of paying tribute to the Jewish nation, hundreds of thousands of whose daughters and sons grew to become victims of the Holocaust carried out by the Third Reich,” learn the decision, printed by the workplace of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Thursday.
Tusk informed reporters that “whether or not it’s the prime minister, the president or the minister – as it’s at the moment declared – of training of Israel, whoever will come to Oswiecim for the celebrations in Auschwitz shall be assured of security and won’t be detained.”
In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his ex-defence minister Yoav Gallant, in addition to Hamas commander Ibrahim a-Masri, often known as Mohammed Deif, on expenses of struggle crimes and crimes towards humanity.
Israel has condemned the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, saying that it has acted in self-defence triggered by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.
As a member state of the ICC, Poland is required to detain suspects dealing with arrest warrants in the event that they set foot on their soil, however the court docket has no method to implement that. Israel is just not a member of the ICC and disputes its jurisdiction.
Unclear if Netanyahu will attend
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Poland’s President Andrzej Duda wrote to Tusk asking that Netanyahu be allowed to attend the commemoration “unhindered”, given the occasion’s distinctive nature.
Malgorzata Paprocka, the top of Duda’s workplace, confirmed to state information company PAP on Thursday {that a} letter had been despatched.
“Within the opinion of the president, there may be one concern – exactly as a result of it’s the Auschwitz camp, each particular person from Israel, each consultant of the authorities of this nation ought to have the chance to participate on this distinctive occasion,” she mentioned.
Prime Minister Tusk, who signed the decision, mentioned he had acquired data from the Israeli embassy that the nation can be represented by its training minister.
Netanyahu has not mentioned whether or not he would attend the Auschwitz commemoration. He has attended earlier anniversary occasions at Auschwitz.
Over 1.1 million folks, principally Jews, died in fuel chambers or from hunger, chilly and illness at Auschwitz, which Nazi Germany arrange in occupied Poland throughout World Battle II.
