An obscene irony: Talk of arresting Netanyahu at Auschwitz

The irony of arresting Netanyahu at Auschwitz would be astounding, undermining the very purpose of the commemoration.

By HERB KEINON DECEMBER 22, 2024 21:35

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of Auschwitz (illustrative). (photo credit: Canva, Chaim Goldberg/Flash90, WALLPAPER FLARE)

Nearly five years ago, as preparations were underway to hold a major event in Jerusalem on January 20, 2020, marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, dozens of world leaders were slated to attend. Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, however,  announced he would not participate because he would not be allowed to speak at the event.

Instead, keynote speeches were to be delivered by then-US Vice President Mike Pence, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

For Duda, the decision to exclude him from speaking was more than a diplomatic slight—it was, he argued, “a distortion of the historical truth,” denying him the chance to honor Polish citizens who perished in the Holocaust.

This sensitivity to “historical truth” raises questions about how Duda might view a potential scenario unfolding today: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being unable to travel to Poland and Auschwitz for an event marking the 80th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation on January 27 because Poland has stated it would honor an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for his arrest on alleged war crimes stemming from the October 7 war.

Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Władysław Bartoszewski, told a Polish newspaper on Friday that Netanyahu would indeed be arrested if he came to the ceremony. Think of that: Poland, upon whose soil millions of Jews were killed, would detain the leader of the Jewish state for taking actions to protect the country from those seeking to destroy it. And this is based on an arrest warrant issued by a court that lacks jurisdiction over Israel.

Auschwitz (credit: REUTERS)

Talk about a distortion of truth — both past and present.

Auschwitz stands as the ultimate symbol of antisemitism, where 1.1 million people were murdered, a million of them Jews. To arrest Netanyahu under an ICC warrant—a move widely viewed in Israel as antisemitic due to its double standards and bias—would send an unconscionable message. For Poland to enforce such a decree, especially at a memorial event for history’s greatest crime of Jew-hatred, is almost unfathomable.

The moral bankruptcy here would be staggering. 

Making noise for noise's sake?

At this stage, however, it’s important to note that this scenario remains hypothetical. Netanyahu never announced any plans to attend the event  -- it is the Polish deputy foreign minister who floated the idea in a newspaper interview --  and it is unclear whether the prime minister would attend even if the ICC case weren’t a factor.  

The natural candidate to represent Israel at such a ceremony would be President Isaac Herzog. Indeed, five years ago, a week after the event in Jerusalem, then-President Reuven Rivlin represented Israel at a 75th anniversary commemoration held at Auschwitz. Herzog himself traveled to Poland two years ago to mark the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

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Israel’s ties with Poland have been tense over the last number of years, making Israeli representation at such events more complex.

Once robust, ties  took a turn for the worse in 2018 when Poland pushed forward legislation criminalizing suggestions that the Poles were complicit in the Holocaust and making it a punishable crime to say “Polish death camps.”

A year later, on a trip to Poland, Netanyahu infuriated the Poles when he was erroneously quoted as saying that “the Poles” collaborated with the Nazis, rather than that “Poles” -- implying “some Poles “ -- collaborated with them. As a result of this, then-Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki canceled a trip to Israel to take part in a high-level summit. 

Two days later, Israel Katz, who had just become foreign minister, exacerbated the crisis even further when he said in relation to the brouhaha: “I am the child of Holocaust survivors, and like every Israeli and Jew, I will not compromise over the memory of the Holocaust. We will not forgive nor forget, and there were many Poles who collaborated with the Nazis. How did Yitzhak Shamir put it – they killed his father – ‘the Poles imbibe anti-Semitism with their mother’s milk.’.”

Relations further deteriorated in 2021 when then-Foreign Minister Yair Lapid recalled Israel’s envoy from Poland over Polish legislation limiting restitution claims for Holocaust victims. Lapid labeled the law “anti-Semitic and unethical” and said, “Poland has become an anti-democratic and illiberal country that does not honor the greatest tragedy in human history.”

Poland responded by recalling its ambassador from Tel Aviv. Though Israel’s envoy returned to Poland a year later, just days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Poland only returned an ambassador to Israel last month.

In other words, just as ties are becoming normal once again, the current scenario risks reigniting tension. 

This situation also has implications beyond Israel-Poland relations.

If Poland were to act on the ICC warrant, it could strain its ties with the United States, particularly with a Republican administration poised to take office. US Senator Lindsey Graham recently indicated he is working on legislation to penalize countries that enforce ICC warrants against Israeli officials. Poland’s alignment with the ICC could be seen in Washington as aligning against Israel, an outcome that could complicate its standing with its key ally.

If it turns out that Poland would indeed honor the ICC warrant were Netanyahu to travel to the country -- rather than grant him diplomatic immunity as France has said it would do if the prime minister would travel there --  then Israel should not send anyone to the ceremony. This would highlight the absurdity of the situation. 

“Auschwitz and Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said at the event in Jerusalem in 2020.  “An abyss and a peak. Auschwitz, extermination; Jerusalem, revival. Auschwitz, enslavement; Jerusalem, freedom. Auschwitz, death; Jerusalem, life.”

Auschwitz, he continued, “is also the ultimate symbol of Jewish powerlessness. It is the culmination of what can happen when our people have no voice, no land, no shield.

“Today, we have a voice, we have a land, and we have a shield. Today, our voice is heard in the White House and in the Kremlin, in the halls of the United Nations and the American Congress, in London, Paris, and Berlin, and in countless capitals around the world.”

If, however, Poland would seriously consider arresting Netanyahu, then it would mean that Israel’s leader would not have a voice at an event commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz.  The irony of that would be astounding, undermining the very purpose of the commemoration and underlining how both historical truth and present-day truth -- in Orwellian fashion --  have been flipped on their head.