Berlin — Polish President Andrzej Duda requested a special exemption to allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend events in the country marking 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, without risking arrest under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court. Poland will host a memorial service eight decades after Allied forces seized the notorious camp from German troops and freed the surviving prisoners on January 27, 1945.
Duda sent a letter to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk requesting an exemption for Netanyahu, who has not said whether he wants to attend the annual event, as he has done several times before, according to a statement confirmed by the head of the office of the Polish president, Malgorzata Paprocka.
Duda highlighted the importance of the 80th Auschwitz Memorial Serviceaffirming that all representatives of Israel, especially those in leadership positions, should be able to participate without legal obstacles.
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The ICC issued arrest warrants in November for Netanyahuformer Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the war in Gaza which followed.
The Israeli government vehemently rejected its leader’s indictment as a miscarriage of justice, insisting it respected his right to self-defense in waging the war against Hamas.
As a signatory country to the United Nations treaty that created the ICC, Poland is required to detain anyone subject to an unexecuted arrest warrant by the Court if they enter its territory.
Polish Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski dismissed speculation of a possible arrest, saying Netanyahu should not travel to Europe.
Neither Tusk nor Israel’s government has issued any public comments on the matter.
This issue comes amid strained relations between Duda, Poland’s conservative and nationalist leader, and the centrist, pro-European Tusk administration, which took office in December 2023. In Poland, the president is the country’s highest-ranking official. , and the person in this role has the power. He has the power to veto legislation introduced by the government, led by the prime minister, but a presidential veto can be overridden by a three-fifths majority vote in Parliament.
Auschwitz, built by the Nazi regime in occupied Poland, has become a powerful symbol of war atrocities. the Holocaust.
More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed by forced labor, starvation, disease and mass executions in the gas chambers of Auschwitz before its liberation. Poland’s Jewish population was decimated, with more than three million dead during World War II, accounting for nearly half of all Holocaust victims.
The annual events marking the liberation of the death camp aim to remind the world of the horrors perpetrated in Europe eight decades ago.
Duda was awaiting a formal response from Tusk regarding the guarantees requested for Netanyahu, should he wish to attend the memorial, which is a major international event that usually attracts world leaders and Holocaust survivors to honor the memory of those who suffered Nazi atrocities.