Media: Israel turned to the United States to help fight Polish rehabilitation law

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has held talks with Washington in order to pressure Poland not to pass an amendment to the Administrative Procedures Law, which limits the prospects for recovering the property of Holocaust survivors, Israeli newspaper Ha’arek reported Thursday.

The newspaper reported that “Lapid, who publicly attacked Polish law last month, which led to an open confrontation with Warsaw,” is in talks on the issue with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

See: “Poles are trying to deny what happened during the Holocaust.” Israel is against the law

Other officials in the Israeli Foreign Ministry are scheduled to discuss the issue with their counterparts in Warsaw and Washington.

Letter from US Senators to the President of Poland

According to the newspaper, a letter sent on Tuesday by 12 senators to Polish President Andrzej Duda strengthened Israel’s position. The senators wrote that “this law will significantly increase the existing difficulties that prevent victims and their families from claiming reparations and reparations for property illegally taken from them by Nazi Germany and the communist government in Poland.”

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On Wednesday, a senior US State Department spokesperson told Haarec that “(Biden administration – ed.) concerns about restitution and reparations relate to justice and equality for all victims, regardless of their nationality, religion or ethnic origin.”

– The spokesman said: – We call on the (Polish) parliament to amend the bill so that the outstanding issues before the court can be continued.

The spokesman added that the United States conveyed the message “publicly and privately at the highest levels to our counterparts in Warsaw.” “The United States will continue to fight for justice for Holocaust survivors and their heirs,” he stressed.

Sources close to the head of Israeli diplomacy told Harik that although it is too early to talk about any “successes” in combating the bill, the senators’ message brought some relief.

Modify CAP

Amending the Administrative Procedure Code is to change the provisions that require the administrative decision to be considered invalid due to a “gross violation of the law” – no matter how long it was made. The provisions of the amendment mean, for example, that 30 years after the issuance of the administrative decision, it will be impossible to initiate proceedings against it, for example in the case of property seized years ago.

The House passed this amendment in the second half of June, and the adoption of the amendment caused lively debate and controversy. The adoption of this amendment by Sim met, inter alia, with a sharp reaction from the Israeli side. Lapid declared, inter alia, that the law was a “disgrace” and would seriously harm relations between the two countries.