Poland’s embassy in Tel Aviv was daubed with swastikas on Sunday, a day after Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki caused outrage by claiming Jews were among the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
Profanities were scrawled across a noticeboard outside the embassy and a swastika had been drawn on the entrance gate. Israeli police have opened an investigation into the incident.
Tensions between the two countries have ratcheted up since Poland passed a controversial new Holocaust-related bill earlier this month.
Israel has been vociferous in its criticism of the new law, accusing Poland of attempting to rewrite history.
But Morawiecki’s comments on Saturday at a security conference in Munich prompted a fresh wave of anger.
Replying to an Israeli journalist when questioned about whether a person could be imprisoned for claiming there were Polish collaborators in the Holocaust, Reuters reported Morawiecki as saying, “Of course it’s not going to be punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian, not only German perpetrators.”
The comments sparked an outcry from Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who phoned Morawiecki to register his disgust.
Netanyahu labeled the comments as “unacceptable” and insisted “there was no basis for comparing the actions of Poles during the Holocaust to those of Jews.” Netanyahu added that the “distortion regarding Poland could not be corrected by means of another distortion.”