{"id":73555,"date":"2019-09-28T17:05:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-28T15:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=73555"},"modified":"2019-09-28T08:47:52","modified_gmt":"2019-09-28T06:47:52","slug":"02-00-44","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=73555","title":{"rendered":"Reports of Tense Between President Duda and US Jewish Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Outpouring of Online Antisemitism in Poland After Reports of Tense Meeting Between Country\u2019s President and US Jewish Leaders<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Ben Cohen<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Polish President Andrzej Duda. Photo: Agencja Gazeta \/ Dawid Zuchowicz via Reuters.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Reports of an argument between Polish President Andrzej Duda and a group of American Jewish leaders on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week provided the cue for a torrent of antisemitic abuse on Polish websites on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hundreds of comments on the popular Wiadomo\u015bci news website drew on both ancient antisemitic stereotypes and more modern hostility to the State of Israel, as one poster after another attacked Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI used to feel sorry for the Jews, but having observed Israel\u2019s actions over the last year, I now understand that they are guilty,\u201d read one typical contribution.<\/span><\/p>\n

The context for Friday\u2019s outpouring of hatred was a meeting on Wednesday between Duda and a delegation of prominent US Jewish figures. Over the last two years especially, Polish-Jewish relations have soured over the passage of the IPN Act, a Polish law that criminalizes discussion of Polish collusion with Nazi Germany during World War II \u2014 a period when three million Polish Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, and millions of Poles perished under both the German and Soviet Russian occupations of their country.<\/span><\/p>\n

One particularly tense moment came in Feb. 2019, when Israel\u2019s then-acting foreign minister, Israel Katz, opined that Poles \u201csuckle antisemitism in their mother\u2019s milk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Katz\u2019s comment, in a TV interview, resulted in a furious response from Duda and other top Polish officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

The alleged heated exchange at Wednesday\u2019s meeting in New York was said to have occurred during a discussion of Katz\u2019s February remark. Polish media reported that Duda had expressed disappointment with the lack of condemnation or remorse in Israel for Katz\u2019s statement, and that he had also complained about an \u201cact of aggression\u201d against Marek Magierowski, Poland\u2019s ambassador to Israel, who was accosted by a protester in Tel Aviv in May.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, an initial media report that Duda had explicitly blamed Israel for sparking antisemitism among Poles during Wednesday\u2019s meeting was firmly denied by the Polish president\u2019s office. \u201cPresident Duda never said that \u2018Israel is responsible for recent antisemitic attacks in Poland,’\u201d his spokesman, Blazej Spychalski, said in a statement released through the Polish Embassy in Washington, DC. \u201cAll participants of the said meeting can corroborate this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That unverified report was nonetheless enough for Poland\u2019s online antisemites to vent their fury. \u201cPoles don\u2019t like Jews because Jews exploit Poles with privatization, they rob Poles because they are cunning and better-organized, and they own newspapers like the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0that slander Poles,\u201d said one comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be out of your mind to enter into any relationship with these people,\u201d said another. \u201cThere are thousands of examples over thousands of years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically, another commenter warmly praised Duda for making the very same observation that his office later denied. \u201cFinally, we have a President who isn\u2019t afraid of the truth,\u201d the comment read. \u201cYes Jews \u2014 draw your own conclusions from this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outpouring of Online Antisemitism in Poland After Reports of Tense Meeting Between Country\u2019s President and US Jewish Leaders Ben Cohen Polish President Andrzej Duda. Photo: Agencja Gazeta \/ Dawid Zuchowicz via Reuters. Reports of an argument between Polish President Andrzej Duda and a group of American Jewish leaders on the fringes of the United Nations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73555"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73602,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73555\/revisions\/73602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}