Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has guaranteed safe passage for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to travel to an event to mark the 80th anniversary of the allied liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, despite the International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against him.
Tusk on Thursday told reporters: “I confirm, whether it is the prime minister, the president or the minister — as it is currently declared — of education of Israel, whoever will come to Oświęcim for the celebrations in Auschwitz will be assured of safety and will not be detained.”
A resolution published by Tusk’s office on Thursday noted: “The Polish government treats the safe participation of the leaders of Israel in the commemorations on January 27, 2025, as part of paying tribute to the Jewish nation, millions of whose daughters and sons became victims of the Holocaust carried out by the Third Reich.”
The assurances came after Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, from the opposition Law and Justice party, this week asked the government to allow Netanyahu to attend the event. Duda wrote to Tusk’s government requesting Netanyahu not be arrested if he sets foot on Polish soil to attend the commemoration, which will take place on Jan. 27, his spokesperson confirmed Thursday.
Netanyahu is the subject of an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant issued in November last year for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Israel has been carrying out a military offensive in the enclave since October 2023, killing tens of thousands of people as it attempts to root out Hamas in response to the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel.
The ICC warrant means Netanyahu could be arrested if he travels to any of the 120 countries that are parties to the ICC — though some, including France and Hungary, have declared they will not arrest him.
According to Polish media outlet Interia, which obtained a copy of Duda’s letter, the president wrote: “The government of Poland should guarantee [Netanyahu] an undisturbed stay on the territory of our country in these absolutely exceptional circumstances.”
Netanyahu has not publicly expressed a desire to attend the commemoration, nor was he invited to do so by its organizer, the Auschwitz Museum, which told Polish media it had only extended invitations to Holocaust survivors.
Tusk, in his comments to reporters on Thursday, accused Duda of making a “political demonstration” by sending his letter to the government, despite the fact Netanyahu had not said he wished to travel to Poland for the event.
About 1 million people were systematically killed by Adolf Hitler’s Nazis at the Auschwitz camp, the vast majority of whom were Jews, and it is often described as the largest mass murder site in history.
This article has been updated.
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