The controversy over a bill passed last week by the Polish parliament that makes it illegal to blame Poland for Holocaust atrocities rages on.
Israeli Ambassador to Poland Anna Azari met with Krzysztof Szczerski, chief of the cabinet of Polish President Andrzej Duda, to discuss Israel's concerns that the new law places constraints on discussion in Poland about the Holocaust and its Polish victims.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry reported that the meeting was held in a "friendly atmosphere."
"The proposed bill was received in Israel as an attempt to prosecute testimonies of the Holocaust survivors. It evoked many emotions. We think it will make it impossible to tell the truth about the Holocaust," Azari told Szczerski.
Azari said that "we hope we will be able to find a common understanding of the changes the bill proposes. Israel knows who built Auschwitz and everyone knows it was not the Poles. I believe that Poland and Israel, being good friends, will be able to find a common language, as usual."
Szczerski said that Poland wanted to prevent the Polish people from being the target of sweeping accusations of responsibility for the Holocaust and Nazi crimes committed during those years.
Meanwhile, head of the Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to negotiate with the prime minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, about the legislation.
"We do not negotiate about the memory of [Holocaust] victims," Lapid said.
In response to the Polish bill, Israel's Education Ministry has built a lesson for schoolchildren titled "Involvement of local populations, including in Poland, in the Holocaust against the Jewish people."
