Poland denies claims it suspended controversial Holocaust law

A Polish government spokesman has played down reports made in the Israeli media on Saturday which said the controversial Poland Holocaust Bill had been suspended.

The proposal of the law, which bans blaming Poland as a nation for Holocaust crimes committed by Nazi Germany, has caused controversy, with Israeli politicians and Jewish organisations saying it limits freedom of speech. The United States is also against the bill, saying it could affect Poland’s strategic relations with both them and Israel.

Reports in Israel on Saturday said the law had been frozen, but Polish government officials were quick to deny them, with Joanna Kopczynska, saying the law would indeed come into effect, as planned, on 1 March.

Stories emanating from the Israeli press said the law would be held back, while talks with Israel were ongoing, but a spokesman for the Polish Ministry of Justice tweeted in reply: “In connection with the information provided in the media about “freezing of the Institute of National Remembrance Act,” @MS_GOV_PL informs that every act passed in Poland by the parliament and signed by the president becomes a law and goes into effect according to the date specified in it.”

It was though confirmed on Sunday that an official Polish government delegation would fly to Israel in the next few days to discuss the matter with an Israeli team, the idea being a meeting takes place to agree on the text for the legislation. The proposal has been passed in Poland’s parliament, but not yet implemented.