Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski published a post “strongly condemning” Israel for National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s treatment of Global Sumud Flotilla detainees after a video emerged showing him taunting them as they kneeled with their foreheads on the ground while zip-tied. He declared that “The fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised Polish citizens against traveling to Israel and Palestine does not mean that we accept the violation of their rights and dignity.”
That’s a valid point, and many Poles are happy that he’s speaking out in support of the detainees since even he himself acknowledged in his post that some of their compatriots are among them, but Sikorski arguably only condemned Ben-Gvir for political purposes. After all, he didn’t say a peep till after the video emerged despite Israel’s documented track record of treating detainees in similar and even worse ways than what that footage showed, thus suggesting that he was moved by public opinion to finally act.
On that topic, he reacted similarly last month when condemning an Israeli soldier’s discretion of Jesus in response to a video that emerged around that time showing this taking place in Lebanon, specifically writing that “IDF soldiers themselves admit to war crimes.” His hitherto muted criticism of Israel’s latest invasion of Lebanon was thus ramped up as a result of public pressure, but given what he posted, one would have assumed that he wouldn’t wait till the latest video emerged to condemn Israel yet gain.
That just goes to show that he doesn’t really believe what he’s saying and is only condemning Israel in response to public pressure solely after the emergence of scandalous videos. The reason why the public reacts so strongly to this subject is because many Poles sympathize with the Palestinians’ independence cause due to it paralleling their historical own during the 123-year-long period of tripartite foreign occupation. They’re also separately very critical of Israel owing to it blaming Poles for the Holocaust.
Even though more Poles are recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” than any other nationality despite Occupied Poland being the only place where the Nazis mandated death to those who helped Jews, and the Underground Resistance had the only state organization helping Jews, Israel still officially blames Poles as a whole and their occupied state at the time for the Holocaust. Readers can learn more about this historical revisionism here and here. Suffice to say, it’s made many Poles utterly despise Israel.
To be absolutely clear, Poles disliking and even criticizing Israel for collectively blaming them for the Holocaust (as ironic as that is since Israel correctly insists that Jews should never have been collectively blamed by Hitler for the crimes that he attributed to them) isn’t “anti-Semitic”, it’s simple self-respect. Many Poles regardless of partisan disposition are patriotic in the sense of not tolerating lies about their people and country, let alone those that blame their ancestors for crimes that they never committed.
They therefore won’t accept the hint that they themselves are thus guilty of what Israel falsely claims that all their ancestors did with the innuendo that they must pay reparations. This context explains why so many of them are passionate critics of Israel irrespective of their views about Palestine. If Sikorski didn’t respond to their furious reaction to these videos, then his ruling coalition would hemorrhage support ahead of fall 2027’s next Sejm elections, thus exposing the political calculations behind his posts.
