Amid Spat With Israel, Poland Freezes Controversial Holocaust Law

Poland has agreed to freeze the implementation of a controversial law that bans attributing blame for the Holocaust to the Polish nation until the country’s constitutional court reviews the issue. The regulation, which forbids the use of the term “Polish death camp,” for example, and imposes up to three years of prison on violators, sparked a firestorm in Israel leading to a major crisis with Warsaw. The diplomatic row peaked last week when Poland’s prime minister at the Munich Security Conference referred to “Jewish perpetrators” of the World War II genocide in the same breathe as the Nazi regime. Over the weekend, European Union President and former Polish premier Donald Tusk weighed into the debate, warning Poland against “anti-Semitic excesses” that risked ruining Warsaw’s global standing. The decision to postpone the law’s introduction has opened the door for a Polish delegation to visit Jerusalem in the coming days in a bid to reach common ground on the matter.