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Poland not anti-Semitic: new Israeli ambassador

03.11.2019 10:00
To say that Poland is an anti-Semitic country is absolutely not true, Israel's new ambassador to Poland, Alexander Ben Zvi, has said.
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Image:Radio Poland

In an interview with private broadcaster Radio Zet, Zvi said that anti-Semitic behavior was present in Poland just like in other countries in Europe or in the United States. "But to say that Poland is an anti-Semitic country is absolutely not true,” he said.

Zvi also said that to criticize Israel and Israeli politicians was not necessarily antisemitism. “Antisemitism is to say that Jews are responsible for something because they are Jews,” he added.

"Who says you cannot criticize Israeli politicians? You can, but as politicians, not as Jews, just as you can criticize French or Swedish politicians on international subjects. It is normal. It is not normal when we talk about Jews as a nation in a negative way,” Zvi told Radio Zet.

Zvi was also asked to comment on compensating Holocaust victims and their relatives for property seized by German Nazis in WWII and later nationalized by the communists.

"In some Visegrad countries, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia some solutions were adopted; the government and the Jewish community came to an agreement there. I think that eventually some agreement must be found,” he said.

Zvi, who handed his credentials to Poland’s President Andrzej Duda last month, is a veteran diplomat who served as ambassador to Slovakia and Costa Rica and has worked in the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry for 36 years. He speaks Hebrew, English, Polish, Spanish, Russian, Yiddish and Slovak.

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Source: PAP