Foreign Ministry officials on Sunday criticized Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's move to recall Israel's top diplomat from Poland and downgrade diplomatic relations with the European ally as misguided and detrimental, saying it would entail heavy and unnecessary diplomatic costs.
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Israel and Poland are mired in a diplomatic row over approval of a law that restricts the rights of Holocaust survivors or their descendants to reclaim property seized by the country's former communist regime.
The Foreign Ministry also said it was recommending that the Polish ambassador, who is on vacation at home, not return to Israel.
"Poland today approved – not for the first time – an immoral, antisemitic law," said Lapid, whose late father was a Holocaust survivor.
As for Poland's ambassador to Israel, "He should use the time he has on his hands to explain to the Poles what the Holocaust means to Israel's citizens and the extent to which we will not tolerate contempt for the memory of those who perished and for the memory of the Holocaust. It will not stop here," Lapid said.
Polish President Andrzej Duda earlier on Sunday signed the law, which, as stated, addresses appropriations done by the communist government that ruled Poland from the end of World War II until 1989.
The law itself says nothing about the Holocaust or World War II. Instead it establishes that any administrative decision issued 30 years ago or more can no longer be challenged, meaning that property owners who had their homes or business seized in the communist era can no longer get compensation.
It is expected to cut off for all time the hopes of some families – both Jewish and non-Jewish – of reclaiming property seized during that era.
Poland is one of the five strongest countries in the European Union, and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki threatened that "If the Israeli government continues to attack Poland in this way, it will also have a very negative impact on our relations – both bilaterally and in international fora."
He added: "Israel's decision to lower the rank of the diplomatic representation in Warsaw is groundless and irresponsible, and the words of Yair Lapid… raise the outrage of every honest person," he said in a Facebook post.
"No one who knows the truth about the Holocaust and the suffering of Poland during World War II can agree to such a way of conducting politics," Morawiecki argued. "Using this tragedy for the needs of partisan interests is shameful and irresponsible."
The belief is that Morawiecki could pursue anti-Israel resolutions in the EU and other international bodies in response to Lapid's combative line.
The Polish foreign ministry said in a statement that it disapproves of the Israeli Foreign Ministry's behavior, adding that the government "will take appropriate political and diplomatic actions, bearing in mind the principle of symmetry in bilateral relations."
"The steps taken by Israel are seriously damaging our relationship," the Polish ministry also said.
The view held by some Israeli diplomats is that a more measured approach toward Warsaw would be have been more appropriate and that such an extreme deterioration of relations should have been avoided. The Polish law, while they agree is problematic, simply perpetuates the situation that exists in all European countries except for Germany. "The Poles did publicly what other countries are doing quietly," said one Israeli diplomat involved in the matter.
Lapid slammed Morawiecki's threats as "antisemitic."
"The negative impact on our ties began the moment that Poland chose to begin passing laws aimed at harming the memory of the Holocaust and the Jewish people in 2018," said Lapid in a statement on Sunday evening. "Gone are the days when Poles harmed Jews without consequence. Today, Jews have a proud and strong country of their own. We do not fear antisemitic threats, and have no intention of turning a blind eye to the shameful conduct of the anti-democratic Polish government."
Duda said Saturday that he had analyzed the matter carefully and decided to sign the law to end legal uncertainty and fraud linked to properties whose ownership remains in doubt decades after their seizure.
The law does not distinguish between Jewish and non-Jewish claimants, and Duda said he strongly objected to anyone suggesting that the law was directed specifically against Jews who survived the Holocaust.
"I unequivocally reject this rhetoric and say it with all my strength," Duda said. "Linking this act with the Holocaust raises my firm objection."
Before World War II, Poland was home to Europe's largest Jewish community of nearly 3.5 million people. Most were murdered in the Holocaust and their properties confiscated by the Nazis.
Some of the small numbers of Polish Jews who survived faced violence and persecution at Polish hands after the war, driving many to immigrate to countries including the United States and Israel.
Poland's post-war communist authorities seized many of those properties, along with the property of many non-Jewish owners in Warsaw and other cities.
When communism fell in 1989, it opened up the possibility for claimants to try to regain family properties. Some cases have been resolved in courts, but Poland has never passed a comprehensive law that would regulate restituting or compensating seized properties.
Complicating the matter, some criminal groups in past years have falsely claimed to represent rightful owners, obtaining valuable properties through fraud, and later evicting tenants from the properties.
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"I am convinced that with my signature the era of legal chaos ends – the era of re-privatization mafias, the uncertainty of millions of Poles and the lack of respect for the basic rights of citizens of our country. I believe in a state that protects its citizens against injustice," Duda said.
The legislation was widely supported across the political spectrum in Poland.
The last major diplomatic crisis between Israel and Poland erupted in 2018 when Warsaw introduced a law that many in Israel viewed as an attempt to suppress discussion of crimes that Poles committed against Jews during the German occupation of World War II. The law was eventually watered down and has not been applied.
