The Polish authorities handed a decision on Thursday pledging to make sure the participation of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the commemoration ceremony for the eightieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, with out being arrested below the scope of the highest world court docket’s arrest warrant for committing genocide in Gaza.
Netanyahu grew to become an internationally wished suspect final yr after the International Criminal Court, the world’s high battle crimes court docket, issued an arrest warrant for him and others in reference to the battle in Gaza, accusing them of crimes towards humanity.
The ICC stated the arrest warrants have been issued over crimes towards humanity, battle crimes, together with homicide, hunger in addition to persecution dedicated by the Israeli leaders.
“The Polish authorities treats the protected participation of the leaders of Israel within the commemorations on January 27, 2025, as a part of paying tribute to the Jewish nation, tens of millions of whose daughters and sons grew to become victims of the Holocaust carried out by the Third Reich,” learn the decision printed by the workplace of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The authorities printed the assertion after Polish President Andrzej Duda requested Tusk to make sure that Netanyahu might attend with out the danger of being arrested.
German forces occupied Poland in the beginning of World War II and arrange a system of ghettos and loss of life camps the place they killed tens of millions of Jews and others.
There had been reviews suggesting that the arrest warrant might stop Netanyahu from touring to Poland to attend observances marking the anniversary of the liberation in 1945 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau loss of life camp by Soviet forces on Jan. 27.
Member nations of the ICC, reminiscent of Poland, are required to detain suspects dealing with a warrant in the event that they set foot on their soil, however the court docket has no option to implement that. Israel just isn’t a member of the ICC and disputes its jurisdiction.
The court docket has greater than 120 member states, although some nations, together with France, have already stated that they might not arrest him. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán even stated he would defy the warrant by inviting Netanyahu to Hungary.
It was not even clear if Netanyahu wished to attend the occasion. The Polish Foreign Ministry stated earlier Thursday that “it has not acquired any info to date indicating that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes to attend the celebration of the eightieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”
“Poland is a safe country and any leader visiting Poland is entitled to protection granted by the Ministry of the Interior,” it added. The ministry also suggested that any idea that Netanyahu could be arrested in Poland is “pretend news” that unfold in U.S. media.
The commemoration will likely be attended by worldwide officers and aged survivors. It is to happen in Oswiecim, a city that was below German occupation in the course of the battle.
More than 1.1 million folks have been murdered at Auschwitz. Historians say that almost all of them, about one million, have been Jewish, however the victims additionally included Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of battle, and others.
Source: www.dailysabah.com