The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum on Thursday criticized a joint statement by the Israeli and Polish prime ministers aimed at ending a dispute over Poland's controversial Holocaust legislation, calling the statement historically inaccurate.
In a rare rebuke of the Israeli government, Yad Vashem said the statement contains "highly problematic wording." It said its own "thorough review" shows "that the historical assertions, presented as unchallenged facts, in the joint statement contain grave errors and deceptions."
Yad Vashem particularly challenged the validity of the assertion that during World War II, the Polish underground and government-in-exile came to the aid of Jews facing death at the hands of the Nazis.
The spat sparked a wave of anti-Semitic comments in Poland, even by state-run media commentators.
Last week, the Polish government watered down the law, which criminalized public assertions that Poland or Poles were complicit in Nazi crimes against the Jews during World War II. The law drew broad condemnation in Israel and the world. This week, the Polish government soften the law to remove criminal sanctions and the penalty of jail, but retained the option of civil action, including against researchers and historians.
After the law was amended, Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Mateusz Morawiecki released a joint statement saying their countries are "friends and partners" and reject blaming Poland or its citizens for atrocities committed by the Nazis or collaborators in other countries.
Their statement went on to praise the wartime Polish government-in-exile, saying it tried to "raise awareness among Western allies of the systematic murder" of Polish Jews.
Netanyahu and Morawiecki also said that "structures of the Polish underground state supervised by the Polish government-in-exile created a mechanism of systematic help and support to Jewish people."
Yad Vashem said its historians have thoroughly reviewed the declaration and said the "essence of the statute remains unchanged" and includes "the possibility of real harm to researchers … and the historical memory of the Holocaust."
The also dispute the historical accuracy of the assertions in the statement.
"The Polish government-in-exile, based in London … did not work decisively during the war on behalf of Poland's Jewish citizens," Yad Vashem said.
"Much of the Polish resistance in its various movements not only failed to help Jews, but was also not infrequently actively involved in persecuting them," it said.
Poland stood firm on the joint statement.
"For us, the position expressed by the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is binding," Deputy Foreign Minister Bartosz Cichocki told the Polish state news agency PAP.
The debate around the statement confirms the need to "strengthen further cooperation of Polish, Israeli, and Jewish historians, teachers, and museum guides to protect the truth about World War II and the Holocaust, including between teams created by both prime ministers," he said.
Poles' behavior during the war has become a central theme for the ruling Law and Justice party, which argues that previous liberal governments in Warsaw tried to teach young people to be ashamed, not proud, of their history.
In Israel, meanwhile, Education Minister and Habayit Hayehudi party head Naftali Bennett called the joint statement "a disgrace, filled with lies, that harms the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust."
"As education minister, entrusted with imparting the legacy of the Holocaust, I completely reject the statement," Bennett said. "It is devoid of factual and historical validity and will not be taught in the education system. I demand the prime minister rescind the statement or bring it to the government for approval."
Former Israeli National Security Adviser Jacob Nagel, who was involved in drafting the joint declaration, blasted Warsaw for publishing the statement in Hebrew.
"The Poles took a statement that was never authorized and put the prime minister's signature on it, but the wording was … not approved. There is no declaration in Hebrew or Polish. There is only a statement in English, and that is the only declaration that was agreed upon by both sides," he said.
He went on to say that the English-language version of the statement was approved by Yad Vashem's chief historian, Professor Dina Porat. "While she may have done so in a private capacity and not as a representative of Yad Vashem, she signed off on the historical assertions," Nagel said.
Porat was unavailable for comment.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked criticized the statement, saying that "the historical truth must be spoken and not distorted. The State of Israel must not be a signatory to this document, and it should, therefore, be rescinded."
Yesh Atid party head Yair Lapid said, "The statement signed by Netanyahu and Poland's prime minister is a disgrace and an outrageous mockery of the memory of those who perished."
He said Netanyahu "must announce that he is rescinding it immediately."
Lawmakers with the Likud party declined to comment on the matter.
In a statement, Arnon Maoz from the Center of Organization of Holocaust Survivors in Israel said, "Signing this agreement is a public betrayal of the memory of the Holocaust, akin to dancing on the graves of the deceased. The State of Israel has no authority to change the course of history for political needs devoid of values and content. We will not allow Holocaust denial to penetrate our ranks."
