The official Israeli Broadcasting Authority said on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not attend the commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz next January in Poland for fear of being arrested.
The authority added, “Netanyahu will not go to Poland to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz for fear of being arrested under an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court on charges of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip.”
On November 21, the International Criminal Court issued two international arrest warrants against Netanyahu and dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Galant on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the ongoing genocidal war on the Strip since October 7, 2023.
With absolute American support, the Israeli occupation army has been waging a war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, which left more than 152,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, and more than 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
Polish commitment
The authority quoted Polish media as saying that its Deputy Foreign Minister, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, affirmed his country’s commitment to “respecting the decisions of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.”
The authority explained that dozens of heads of state are expected to participate in the celebration in Poland, while Israel is likely to be represented by Education Minister Yoav Kisch.
“This year, the Polish government is planning a larger than usual celebration to mark the liberation of the camp,” she added.
The main celebration will be held on January 27 in the Auschwitz camp, which was established by the Nazi regime, according to the authority.
Auschwitz is a complex of more than 40 concentration and extermination camps run by Nazi Germany in the occupied part of Poland during World War II and the Holocaust.
Soviet forces entered the camp on January 27, 1945, a day observed since 2005 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In 1947, Poland established the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, and in 1979 it was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
