Israeli ambassador to Warsaw should be recalled, opposition says
Poland’s main opposition party believes that the Israeli ambassador to Warsaw should be recalled for his comments following last week’s attack on a humanitarian convoy in Gaza that killed seven aid workers, including a Polish national.
Arkadiusz MularczykPR24
On Friday, Polish lawmakers discussed a foreign ministry report on the death of the Polish aid worker, Damian Soból, who lost his life in the Israeli attack on April 2.
According to reports, the NGO World Central Kitchen’s three-car convoy was targeted by three separate strikes by Israeli forces, killing seven humanitarian aid workers: the Polish citizen, three British nationals, an Australian, a dual US-Canada national, and a Palestinian.
During the debate on Friday, Arkadiusz Mularczyk, an MP with Poland’s right-wing opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, said that the deaths of the seven volunteers were the result of a „planned and deliberate action by the Israeli military” who, he added, knew the convoy’s exact route.
He assessed the incident as a war crime.
Mularczyk also argued that the Israeli envoy, Jacov Livne, had been summoned „too late” by the Polish foreign ministry following his “outrageous” comments which the Polish MP said „rightly stirred controversy.”
Meanwhile, MPs from the ruling Civic Coalition (KO) said that Soból’s death case must be impartially and thoroughly investigated by Israel, and that those responsible must be held to account.
MP Aleksandra Wiśniewska described the deaths of the seven volunteers as „an execution of the defenceless” and a war crime.
Immediately after the convoy attack, Livne sparked a wave of outrage in Poland with accusations of antisemitism.
Referring to a post by a Polish far-right opposition politician, Livne wrote that the „extreme right and left” in Poland were accusing Israel of intentional murder. „Conclusion: anti-Semites will always remain anti-Semites, and Israel remains a democratic Jewish state that fights for its right to exist,” Livne said.
Last week, after summoning the ambassador, the Polish foreign ministry said it would not expel Livne, adding that he „apologised for the event”.
The ministry also asserted that „the meeting with the Israeli ambassador was very firm on the Polish side.”
(mo/gs)
Source: PAP
