"We return to normal, good, friendly relations between both countries," said Israeli Ambassador to Poland Anna Azari to the media, commenting on the changes made to the bill on the Institute of National Remembrance. "There never was any shutdown in Israeli-Polish relations, but last five months were very difficult," she added.
"I said in the very beginning, in Oświęcim in January, that two, so friendly nations will find a common path to cooperation. We've found this path and we return to normal, good, friendly relations between both countries," Ambassador Azari told journalists on Thursday.
As she pointed out, essential is the joint declaration issued by prime ministers of Poland and Israel. "I strongly encourage anyone who is interested in the issue to read the provisions of the declaration. Our narration have more in common than people think. I believe it marks the beginning of long-lasting, friendly relations," emphasised the Ambassador.
Israeli Ambassador to Poland also mentioned that there never was any shutdown in Israeli-Polish relations. However, as she added, "last five months were realy difficult". "I'm very happy that it's all over now," said Anna Azari.
Unexpected U-turn
Poland's ruling conservatives on Wednesday watered down Holocaust legislation that had angered the United States and Israel, removing the threat of jail terms for people who suggest the nation was complicit in Nazi crimes against the Jews.
In an unexpected U-turn, parliament voted on an amendment in an emergency session shortly after Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki asked it to change the four-month-old law. President Andrzej Duda signed it into law hours later.
The move came as the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) seeks to bolster security ties with Washington and is facing heightened scrutiny from the European Union.
The law as it went into effect in March imposed jail sentences of up to three years for anyone who used the phrase "Polish death camps" or suggested "publicly and against the facts" that the Polish nation or state was complicit in Nazi Germany's crimes.
About 3 million Jews who lived in pre-war Poland were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for about half of all Jews killed in the Holocaust.
The PiS government said in March that the law was needed to protect Poland's reputation, but Israel and its ally the United States said it amounted to a historical whitewash.
"Kind of shock"
Morawiecki did not say what precisely had prompted his morning announcement. But he told parliament the terms of the existing law had already done their job by raising awareness of Poland's role in World War Two. The government says Poles were the victims of Nazi aggression, not fellow perpetrators.
The law had been meant as "a kind of shock" and courts would still be able impose fines, he added.
"The purpose of this law was and still is one fundamental message: fight for the truth, fight for the truth of World War Two and post-war times," Morawiecki said.
"A publisher in the United States or in Germany will think twice before publishing today an article using the expression 'Polish SS", 'Polish Gestapo' or 'Polish concentration camps' if he risks a lawsuit and a fine of 100 million euro or dollars."
In a joint statement, Morawiecki and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the two nations were "friends and partners".
"We reject the actions aimed at blaming Poland or the Polish nation as a whole for the atrocities committed by the Nazis and their collaborators of different nations," the statement read.
Netanyahu said separately he was pleased Poland had "fully rescinded the clauses that ... caused a storm and consternation in Israel and among the international community".
Pride, not shame
The issue of the Poles' behaviour during World War Two has become a central theme for the PiS government, which argues that previous, liberal governments sought to teach young Poles to be ashamed, not proud, of their history.
Thousands of Poles risked their lives to protect Jewish neighbours during World War Two. But research published since the fall of communism in 1989 showed that thousands also killed Jews or denounced those who hid them to the Nazi occupiers, challenging the national narrative that Poland was solely a victim.
Jews from across the continent were sent to be killed at death camps built and operated by Germans in Nazi-occupied Poland -- home to Europe's biggest Jewish community at the time -- including Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24, PAP
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: tvn24