Seven decades later, it seems that the only issue capable of uniting the quarrelsome Israelite tribe into a consensus is the Holocaust. On Jan. 26, the Polish parliament passed a law that forbids mentioning the part of the Polish people in the destruction of its Jews, and it set a three-year prison term for anyone using the term “Polish death camp.” The news infuriated all Israelis across the political spectrum, making the splintered Israeli state one combative entity.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett instructed his staff to immediately prepare a lesson plan for mandatory classes to be taught in schools this week regarding the Polish involvement in the Holocaust. “It is a historical fact that many Poles collaborated in the murder of the Jews. They informed on them, turned them over and even committed murder with their own hands,” Bennett explained. Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, the son of Holocaust survivor Yosef Lapid, tweeted that “no Polish law can change history. Poland collaborated in the Holocaust. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered on Polish land without encountering one German officer.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a bit more time to react. On Saturday night, several hours after the Polish law was passed, he made his objection and condemnation. Netanyahu’s statement was much less furious and more politically correct that most of the others.
Even Arab Knesset members Ahmad Tibi and Ayman Odeh agreed. Tibi said, “The Polish law has no place: It is an unfortunate, shameless law that opens a window to Holocaust deniers. Numerous Poles took part in the destruction and murder of Jews, and too many others kept silent. Anyone looking toward the future, must [first] learn from the past,” adding, “This legislation does not set us free,” a play on words of the sign "Arbeit macht frei" (“Work sets you free”), which greeted the unfortunate victims led to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. This camp on Polish territory became the largest cemetery of murdered Jews in the entire history of the Jewish people.
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