WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s President Andrzej Duda is asking the country’s government to ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can attend observances marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz later this month without the risk of being arrested, a Polish presidential aide said Thursday.
Netanyahu became an internationally wanted suspect after the International Criminal Court, the world’s top war crimes court, and others in connection with the 15-month war in Gaza, accusing them of crimes against humanity.
There have been reports suggesting that the warrant could prevent Netanyahu from traveling to Poland to attend observances marking the anniversary of the liberation in 1945 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by Soviet forces on Jan. 27.
As a signatory to the treaty of the International Criminal Court, which issued the warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest, Poland would have an obligation to arrest him. Israel is not a member of the ICC and disputes its jurisdiction.
The court has more than 120 member states, though some countries have already said that they would not arrest him, including France.
The commemoration will be attended by international officials and elderly survivors. It is to take place in Oswiecim, a town that was under German occupation during World War II where the Nazi German forces operated the most notorious of its death camps.
More than 1.1 million people were . Historians say that most of them, about a million, were Jewish, but the victims also included Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and others.
Duda has asked the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk to provide Netanyahu with protection from arrest, according to a top Duda aide, Malgorzata Paprocka, according to a report from PAP, the Polish state news agency.
Paprocka said that every Israeli state official and citizen should have the right to take part in the anniversary commemorations, and noted that “all instruments” related to ensuring Netanyahu’s stay in Poland are in the hands of Tusk’s government.
Bloomberg News first reported that Duda sent the request to Tusk by letter.
Paprocka said Duda’s office was still waiting for a reply.
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