"Poland backtracks on controversial Holocaust law, scrapping threat of prison," wrote Israeli "Haaretz" in its online edition on Wednesday. The article was released after Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki put forward an amendment to the bill on the National Remembrance Institute.
"Haaretz" mentions that the amendment was proposed six months after passing of the original bill, and after months of discussing the issue between Polish and Israeli governments. It also underlines that Warsaw wants to change the bill by removing jail penalty for violation of its provisions.
The daily also wrote that the passing of the Holocaust law had caused a crisis in relations between Poland and Israel and the Jewish community around the world. The authors of the article lists arguments against the legislation, for instance, that its curbing the discussion about the role of the Polish citizens in the Holocaust.
"Haaretz" points to the fact of passing the bill over to the Constitutional Tribunal by President Andrzej Duda, which in practice means suspending its effectiveness until the Tribunal's ruling.
Israeli paper informs that the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists call upon the Polish Constitutional Court to dismiss the Holocaust law. In the Association's opinion, "the imposition of such criminal restrictions on freedom of expression not only violates constitutional and international law's standards but also harms Poland itself and its relations with the Jewish people".
Furthermore, the Association emphasises that it acknowledges that Poles were victims of the Nazi regime and expresses gratitude towards those Poles who risked their lives by saving Jews from the Holocaust.
At the same time, it states that "it is impossible to ignore the fact that some Poles assisted the Nazis in their actions to exterminate the Jewish people, and there is no place to impose restrictions on freedom of expression regarding this sensitive and painful issue, which should be the subject of free and unlimited public discourse and academic research".
"Poland hopes changes to a contested Holocaust law would help Warsaw improve relations with Israel," Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday.
In an unexpected policy reversal, Warsaw's right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party agreed on Wednesday to remove provisions in the law that imposed jail sentences for suggestions of Poland's complicity in Nazi crimes.
Morawiecki and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold separate news conferences on the issue at 1600 GMT on Wednesday, a Polish government official said.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24, PAP, HAARETZ