Berlin – Polish President Andrzej Duda has called for a special exemption to allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend events in the country marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, without risking arrest. under the warrant of the International Criminal Court. Poland will host a memorial service eight decades after Allied forces captured the notorious camp from German soldiers and freed its remaining prisoners on January 27, 1945.
Duda sent a letter to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk asking for the release of 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 president of Poland, Paproka Malgorzata.
Duda highlighted the importance of the 80th Auschwitz memorial servicesaying that any representatives from Israel, especially those in leadership positions, should be able to participate without legal obstacles.
Chaim Goldberg/Flash90/Pool/Anadolu/Getty
The ICC issue arrest warrants in November for Netanyahuformer Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
The Israeli government has vehemently rejected the trial of its leader as a miscarriage of justice, insisting that it had stayed within its rights of self-defense in carrying out the war. against Hamas.
As a signatory nation to the United Nations treaty that established the ICC, Poland is obliged to extradite anyone with an outstanding warrant if they enter the area her
Polish Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski dismissed speculation about any arrests, saying Netanyahu was not expected to visit Europe.
Neither Tusk nor Israel's government has issued any public comments on the matter.
The case comes amid a tense relationship between Duda, Poland's conservative nationalist leader, and Europe-forward prime minister Tusk, which began in December 2023. In Poland, the the president is the country's chief executive, and the incumbent has the power to veto legislation introduced by the government, which is led by the prime minister, but the president's veto can be overridden by vote a three-fifths majority in parliament.
Auschwitz, built by the Nazi regime in Poland where she lived, became a powerful symbol of horrors the Holocaust.
More than 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, were killed through forced labor, starvation, disease and mass execution in gas chambers in Auschwitz before its liberation. Poland's Jewish population was decimated, with over three million killed during World War II, accounting for nearly half of the victims of the Holocaust.
The annual events that mark the liberation of the death camp are intended to remind the world of the horrors committed in Europe eight decades ago.
Duda was waiting for a formal response from Tusk regarding the pledges requested for Netanyahu, if he wanted to attend the memorial, which is a major international event that usually draw world leaders and Holocaust survivors to honor the memory of those who suffered Nazi atrocities.
