"Time to return to normal relations". Israeli Ambassador to Poland submits letter of credence

"We have agreed with Israel's President Isaac Herzog it is time to return to normal relations (between) Poland and Israel. The first step taken. Ambassador @YacovLivne submitted letters of credence today. President Herzog has asked me restore Poland's Ambassador to Israel. I hope it will happen soon," Poland's President Andrzej Duda said on Twitter.

"Thank you President @AndrzejDuda for receiving Ambassador @YacovLivne's credentials: an important first step to advancing Israeli-Polish relations," Israel's President Issac Herzog said in a tweet on Tuesday.

"I hope to receive the letters of credence of the new Polish ambassador in Israel soon," he added.

Asked by TVN24 reporter Radomir Wit about president Duda's tweet, Israeli Ambassador Yacov Livne said that he fully agreed with the Polish leader.

"I arrived here in order to restore the relationship between Poland and Israel back on the normal track. This is our goal. I was very happy to hear from the president that this is also the goal of Poland. I think we have today many challenges and many opportunities on which Poland and Israel should work together and can work together. We are eager to see Polish ambassador back in Israel and I think this will help us to further develop our relationship, which we find very important," he underscored.

The ambassador was also asked about the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead of Poland and Israel. "We are seeing what happens in the world today, we are seeing what has been happening in our region, in the Middle East, for years – wars, hunger, instability, terrorism. Now, unfortunately we also see war in Ukraine, on the border with Poland. We see various things happening on the international arena, and we believe friendly countries, such as Poland and Israel, can and should work together on these challenges – these are challenges of security, these are challenges of economic cooperation," the ambassador listed.

"We also have - Israel and Poland, the Jewish people and the Polish people - we have a huge richness of historical ties, historical contacts. This is also something we need to work on and I believe we will be able to do this together," he said.

"I think that the common heritage that the Polish people and the Jewish people have, the fact that we have been living together for one thousand years, this should be the basis of our relationship, this should be the basis of our dialogue. We were able to do this in the first 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, after the collapse of the Soviet Bloc. I’m sure we will be able to continue and to this now," ambassador Yacov Livne said.

The ambassador was also asked about young Israelis who come to Poland to learn about the history of the Holocaust. Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the usual formula of those organised trips required to be changed. Israeli authorities responded by cancelling educational trips to Poland for thousands of middle school pupils planned for this summer. Israel claims the Polish government tries to control the way Israeli children are taught about the Holocaust.

"Indeed, it has been discussed and it will be discussed. I think that we should have good will in order to find a solution to this issue," Livne said.

"The trips itself are very important for young people in Israel, who want to know more about the terrible history of the Holocaust, which was not initiated by the Poles, but happened to a large part here on Polish soil, happened in the death camps that were built here by the German, Auschwitz and other places. Unfortunately, this part of our history and we need to know this. This is why the young people are coming here, and I’m sure that with good will be able to find common ground between the government of Israel and the government of Poland also on this issue," he added.

Israel and Poland have agreed to improve relations that had deteriorated after Warsaw introduced a law last year limiting the ability of Jews to recover World War Two properties, saying on July 4 they would mutually restore ambassadors.

The move marked a shift for new Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who as foreign minister had denounced as "anti-Semitic and immoral" the bill affecting property seized by Nazi German occupiers and retained by Poland's post-war communist rulers.

"It was agreed that relations would be restored to their proper course," said a statement issued by Israeli President Isaac Herzog after he spoke to his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda earlier in July.

"Both presidents expressed their hope that any future issues between Poland and Israel will be solved through sincere and open dialogue and in a spirit of mutual respect," it added.

Duda's office had said the Polish ambassador to Israel, recalled during the row, should return. Herzog's office had said the new Israeli ambassador-designate to Poland would present his credentials in the coming days.

"We are trying to mend our relations with Israel," the Polish president's foreign policy advisor Jakub Kumoch was quoted as saying by news website Onet. "No losers or winners. We give one more chance for normal relations."