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Polish President Andrzej Duda is demanding that his political rival Donald Tusk, the prime minister, shield Benjamin Netanyahu from potential arrest if Israel’s PM travels to Poland this month to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz.
Netanyahu faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
But in a move likely to fuel Poland’s domestic political tensions, Duda wrote to Tusk to insist that Netanyahu be guaranteed “an undisturbed stay on the territory of our country” should he attend the 80th commemoration of the liberation of the Nazi death camp on January 27.
Duda’s intervention comes ahead of a Polish presidential election in May that Tusk’s pro-EU coalition needs to win in order to unlock its reform agenda, which has been stalled by Duda since Tusk ousted the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party from power in December 2023.
Duda, a PiS nominee, has used his second and final term to block some of Tusk’s bills and stop him from replacing PiS-nominated judges and ambassadors.
Duda stressed that he had “honorary patronage” of the Auschwitz commemoration ceremony, which is set to be attended by King Charles III and other world leaders, as well as some of the last survivors of the biggest second world war death camp, which the Germans built in occupied Poland and turned into the centre of the Holocaust.
Tusk’s office did not immediately respond to Duda’s letter, but deputy prime minister Krzysztof Gawkowski told parliament on Thursday that “there is no topic today about Netanyahu coming to Poland”.
Duda underlined the “exceptional nature” of this year’s commemoration, although he did not specifically invite Netanyahu in his letter, which was first obtained by Bloomberg News. The Israeli prime minister, who has previously visited Auschwitz, has not said whether he wants to return this month.
Last month Polish deputy foreign minister Władysław Bartoszewski said that, as an ICC member state, Poland was “obliged to respect the warrants issued by the ICC”, but he did not confirm that this would automatically require the arrest of Netanyahu.
The international court’s arrest warrants have curtailed but not stopped the movements of some indicted government leaders.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused of war crimes in Ukraine by the ICC, travelled last year to South Africa after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that arresting him would “risk engaging in war with Russia”.
In November, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said he would invite Netanyahu to visit his country despite the ICC’s warrant and the fact that Hungary is also a member. Netanyahu thanked Orbán for his “moral clarity” but the European Commission criticised his statement.
The head of Duda’s office, Małgorzata Paprocka, told the Polish state news agency on Thursday that the president wrote to Tusk to say that “every person from Israel, every representative of the authorities of this country should have the opportunity to take part in this exceptional event” at Auschwitz.
Additional reporting by Natalia Sawka
