Foreign Ministry warns of rising anti-Semitism in wake of Polish Holocaust bill

The Foreign Ministry says it is increasingly concerned about a spate of anti-Semitic expressions in the Polish media in the wake of the controversial Polish Holocaust Bill.

Ties between Warsaw and Jerusalem have been tense since Israel voiced its opposition to a bill that criminalizes blaming Poles for atrocities during the Holocaust, angering the Poles.

“The Foreign Ministry is monitoring with concern the rising anti-Semitic feelings expressed through the Polish media and we are considering making an appeal via out embassy in Warsaw,” the ministry says.

Israel has pilloried the legislation — which prescribes prison time for referring to “Polish death camps,” and criminalizes the mention of Polish complicity in Nazi crimes — as “distortion of the truth, the rewriting of history and the denial of the Holocaust.”