Haaretz: Israel Adopts Warsaw's Narrative, Ignores Holocaust Crimes by Poles

A joint statement Tuesday by the Israeli and Polish governments made no mention of Polish persecution of Jews during the Holocaust despite the several paragraphs devoted to Holocaust remembrance. Critics charge that Poland's right-wing government has been trying to obliterate that and other unpleasant facts from the historical record. A senior Israeli official said that at no point during the talks did Israel seek to insert anything about Poles who collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust. According to the official, the main issue that troubled the Israelis was legislation being pushed by Warsaw that could restrict academic research into the Holocaust. He said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised this issue with Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo during a joint cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. "I agree that truth is truth, but it's necessary to investigate openly and freely," the official quoted Netanyahu as telling his Polish colleagues. "There were Nazi collaborators from every country, including Poles." According to the official, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo responded that her government did not seek to undermine or restrict Holocaust research, and that this point was stressed in the legislation. The Israelis who helped craft the joint statement included people from the Prime Minister's Office, the Foreign Ministry, the Israeli Embassy in Warsaw and Yad Vashem, the official said. The joint statement has drawn mixed reviews from historians. Poland did not explicitly promise to stop persecuting researchers who study Polish crimes during the Holocaust, agreeing only to a general statement supporting academic freedom. Full text -- Haaretz