Every year, some 40,000 Israeli high school students are sent to Nazi death camps in Poland to form an important part of their Jewish and Israeli identity, but Tel Aviv canceled those visits this year after Poland was asked to take part in defining the content of education. Israeli students.
The British Middle East Eye website reported on Sunday 14 August 2022 that these trips, organized by schools, youth movements and private institutions, should educate participants about the Holocaust and honor the memory of its victims, as it is an important part in shaping one’s identity. . This summer, according to the Israeli Ministry of Education, it was planned to organize about 127 trips to Poland in July and August, involving about 14,000 students. But in mid-June, then-Foreign Minister (and now Prime Minister) Yair Lapid announced that Israel would cancel all such flights and that the decision would take effect immediately. The immediate reason for the cancellation of these flights was the new interpretation by the Polish government of the law on the Institute for the Revival of National Memory.
This law, passed in 2018, punishes any public or implicit statements that the Polish people are responsible for the Holocaust or collaboration with the Nazis. The new interpretation of this law extended its scope to include non-Polish citizens speaking on Polish soil.
Based on this interpretation, the Polish government insisted that it participate in determining the content of the education of Israeli student groups. But Lapid told the media, “Poles have no right to dictate to us what we teach Israeli children.”
Poland also objected to Israeli security personnel carrying weapons on Polish soil during these trips, which began in 1986 when Poland and Israel resumed diplomatic relations. But the cancellation highlights growing tensions between the two countries. Tensions between Israel and Poland have been on the rise since 2015, when the conservative nationalist Law and Justice Party came to power and pursued policies that are seen as hostile to Israel and the Jewish people.
Relations further escalated after the adoption in 2018 of a law known in Israel as the “Holocaust Law,” which banned any discussion of Poland’s anti-Semitism and its involvement in the Holocaust and encouraged Poles to consider themselves noble victims and heroes. First the Nazis, and then the Soviet Union.
And last year, another diplomatic crisis erupted when the Polish parliament approved a law restricting Jews’ right to reclaim pre-World War II property seized by the Nazis and then nationalized under communist rule. This diplomatic row led to a deterioration in relations. However, relations improved somewhat after Poland helped expel Israelis and Jews from Ukraine when the war broke out.
But another controversy arose in late July, when the Polish Film Institute, which had given Israeli filmmaker Barak Heyman a NIS 188,000 ($54,500) grant to complete a film about the recently deceased sculptor Danny Karavan, demanded a refund. The film highlights Karavan’s fear that a sculpture he made in Poland commemorating Poles who tried to save Jews during the Holocaust could be used to promote the nationalist agenda of the Polish government. Polish officials demand their money back; Because the film allegedly “distorts history”, because it depicts experts who claim that the number of Poles who tried to help the Jews is relatively small. Heymann launched a crowdfunding campaign that quickly achieved its goal and was accompanied by a number of comments from its participants, who said that their contribution was to prevent Poland from changing history.