Diplomatic war erupts between Poland and Israel over compensation for German crimes during WW2

A new Polish law has reignited a diplomatic war between Poland and Israel. Poland's prime minister said on Friday that as long as he holds his post the Polish government will not pay for German crimes committed during the Second World War.

Mateusz Morawiecki made his declaration as Poland came under fire from Israel after the Polish lower house of parliament passed a bill that could put a time limit on restitution claims for property lost during the War. Israel and Jewish and Zionist groups worldwide have been demanding for decades that Poland pay at least tens of billions of dollars in compensation for the property of Polish Jews who were killed by Nazi Germany during WW2. The law in Poland allows Polish Jews or their families who lived in Poland prior and during WW2 to claim compensation, or even to have the property itself sometimes restored to its previous owner. However the law does not allow for countries or even groups to claim compensation in the name of other individuals. However according to the new law which was passed by the Polish parliament on Thursday evening, courts may consider appeals regarding administrative decisions on property only if they were made within the previous 30 years. Meaning from now on there would be a time limit for individual compensation claims. The new legislation still needs to be approved by Poland’s senate. Israel's government and media reacted extremely harshly to this new piece of legislation. Israel's foreign minister and substitute prime Minister, Yair Lapid, even went as far as to claim that Poland is trying to “erase the memory of millons of dead Jews”. "The Polish prime minister said today, "As long as I am prime minister, Poland will certainly not pay for German crimes: not zlotys, not euros and not dollars." The Polish Prime Minister should reconsider the facts. Millions of Jews were murdered on Polish soil and no legislation will erase their memory."

In the past Yair Lapid has often blamed Poland for the holocaust, stating that “Polish death camps” existed, even though they never have and the term itself is part of a Nazi disinformation campaign. Lapid even claimed that “Poles murdered his grandmother”, even though both his grandmothers were alive and well after WW2 and died not in “Polish death camps” but of old age and natural causes in Israel. After being caught lying Lapid later claimed that he in fact meant his "great grandmother" and not his actual "grandmother", even though he specificaly tweeted that "Poles murdered my *grandmother*".

His outrageous and scandalous lies and holocaust distorting remarks even prompted none other than the Auschwitz Museum itself to rebuke him in public.

The greatest farce of them all is that Israel to this day refuses to pay one shekel to Palestinian refugees for their stolen lands and homes since 1948. Up until 1948 the Zionism movement in Israel, the “Yishuv”, owned only 5.5% of Palestinian lands, but after the Nakba and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948 the state of Israel ended controlling 80% of all the lands in Mandatory Palestine, including hundreds of Palestinian villages, towns and cities. To this day Israel refuses to even hear any call for reparations for stolen Palestinian lands and properties or damages, labeling anyone who even raises the matter as an “antisemite”.