Israeli PM's misquote clarified: official

Speaking to Polish Radio on Saturday, the head of the Polish Prime Minister's Office Michał Dworczyk stressed that Israeli Prime Minister's office issued a statement denying that Benjamin Netanyahu had accused the Polish nation of complicity in the Nazi Holocaust as had been reported in Thursday’s issue of the Jerusalem Post.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu's office clarified the matter in a statement, denying the report contained in the Jerusalem Post. I think this statement closes the issue,” Dworczyk said. He added that following the incident, Israeli Ambassador to Poland Anna Azari had been summoned but the explanations she submitted were deemed unsatisfactory.

In the statement, the office stressed that Netanyahu, who attended a U.S.-sponsored Middle East conference in Warsaw, had not cast any blanket blame in the question of Polish collaboration with Nazi occupiers and had been simply misquoted by the newspaper. “In a briefing, PM Netanyahu spoke of Poles and not the Polish people or the country of Poland. This was misquoted and misrepresented in press reports and was subsequently corrected by the journalist who issued the initial misstatement,” the Israeli statement read.

The controversy threatened to undermine a two-day summit on Monday in Israel between Netanyahu and the so-called Visegrad Group, comprised of four central European nations including Poland. (mo)

Source: IAR, PAP