The Polish Senate will vote later today on the controversial Polish Holocaust bill, despite agreeing to address Israeli concerns before it moves ahead, Hebrew media reports.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to his Polish counterpart Sunday night, as the two attempted to set aside a diplomatic spat over legislation in Warsaw that criminalizes blaming Poles for Nazi atrocities.
Netanyahu has pilloried the law — 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.”
Netanyahu and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki “agreed to immediately open a dialogue between staffs of the two countries, in order to try and reach an understanding over the legislation,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office read.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland speaks in Budapest on January 26, 2018 (AFP/Attila KISBENEDEK)
But Poland is apparently not waiting and the Senate will vote today, Hadashot news reports.
The bill, passed by the lower house of the Polish parliament, still needs approval from Poland’s Senate and president.
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