Ignoring ICC's Arrest Order, Polish President Wants Netanyahu To Attend Holocaust Commemoration At Auschwitz

JAKARTA - Polish President Andrzej Duda asked his staff to ensure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could attend the 80th anniversary of the release of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp without fear of being arrested under an ICC warrant.

An International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in November 2024 for Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic group.

Bloomberg previously reported President Andrzej Duda had written a letter to Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying Poland should ensure Netanyahu could "without a hitch" attend the Auschwitz commemoration on January 27 given the extraordinary nature of the event.

"According to the president's opinion, there is one problem precisely because this is the Auschwitz camp, everyone from Israel, every representative of the country's authority should have the opportunity to take part in this extraordinary event," the Polish president's aide said.

When asked by the TVP Info news channel whether Netanyahu could rely on guarantees from Poland, Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said: "There is no such topic, because Netanyahu will not come to Europe".

While Netanyahu has not spoken whether he will attend the Auschwitz commemoration. He attended an earlier memorial at Auschwitz.

More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, died in gas chambers or from hunger, cold, and disease in Auschwitz, which was founded by Nazi Germany in Poland occupied during the Second World War.

More than three million of the 3.2 million Jews in Poland were killed by the Nazis, which is about half of the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust.