President Andrzej Duda reportedly asked the Polish premier to guarantee that a visit would be “unhindered” by the ICC’s arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister.
By JNS
Polish President Andrzej Duda has called on his government to shield Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from arrest should he choose to attend the Jan. 27 ceremony marking 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Duda reportedly asked Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to guarantee that a possible visit by Netanyahu would remain “unhindered” by the Nov. 21 International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against him.
In the Jan. 8 missive that was seen by Bloomberg News, Duda cited the “absolutely exceptional circumstances” of the commemorative event.
Duda, a conservative who has frequently clashed with Tusk’s more liberal coalition, said that he believes Warsaw will be able to “devise an adequate formula” to provide guarantees for Netanyahu and reconcile respect for international law with the significance of the anniversary.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on the Bloomberg report.
JNS queries to the offices of Duda and Tusk, as well as the Polish embassy in Israel, remained unanswered as of press time.
Late last month, the PMO claimed that the Jewish state’s longest-serving prime minister had never planned to attend the ceremony marking the liberation of the largest Nazi death camp, where an estimated 960,000 European Jews were murdered between 1940 and Jan. 27, 1945.
“The event was not even in the prime minister’s schedule from the beginning,” a PMO source told JNS on Dec. 22.
Polish media had reported that Netanyahu would skip the event due to fear of arrest after Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski, secretary of state in the Polish Foreign Ministry, said Warsaw would follow through on the ICC arrest warrant.
The Hague court issued warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant on Nov. 21 for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes. More than 120 countries are signatories to the Rome Statute, the 2002 treaty which established the International Criminal Court, requiring them to act on the tribunal’s warrants.
Multiple member states of the European Union, who are collectively signatories to the ICC, have hinted at the possibility that the Israeli premier could enjoy immunity from arrest if he visits in an official capacity, including Hungary, France and Italy.