Poland’s president has urged the government not to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he attend Auschwitz’s liberation anniversary later this month, his office said Thursday.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November over the Gaza war, sparking outrage from Israel and its allies.
Poland, as a party to the ICC, would have to arrest Netanyahu if he attended the ceremony marking 80 years since the Red Army liberated the Nazi German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said that “every person from Israel, every official from that country, should be able to participate in this unique event,” his aide Malgorzata Paprocka said at X.
Duda had sent a letter to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “to ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can participate in the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, should he express such a wish”.
Tusk has not yet commented on the president’s position.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, whom the Israeli military says it killed in Gaza.
The court said it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhuman acts.
The ceremony commemorating 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau is scheduled for January 27, with international delegations present.
The Auschwitz museum had previously told AFP that it was up to each country to choose its representatives for the event.
Nazi Germany built the death camp after it invaded Poland in World War II.
The camp has become a symbol of Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million European Jews, one million of whom died at the site between 1940 and 1945, along with more than 100,000 non-Jews.
