Polish Prime Minister Cancels Trip to Israel Over Holocaust Row

Poland's prime minister is canceling a trip to Israel after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested the Poles were complicit in the World War 2 Holocaust.

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A spokesperson for Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told Reuters that the state leader would not attend the summit but would send Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz instead.

Morawiecki informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his decision via a phone call Sunday afternoon. He was supposed to attend a summit of four central and Eastern European countries set to be held in Jerusalem this week.

Netanyahu's office said in a statement that the prime minister had been misquoted by The Jerusalem Post, which issued a corrected story. His office later said the government leader had not cast a wide blame on the question of Polish collaboration with Nazi occupiers.

Netanyahu's new acting foreign minister, Israel Katz, dismissed the Polish leader’s cancellation and unequivocally accused Poles of working with the Nazis.

"In diplomacy one always tries to avoid causing offence. But no one will change historical truth," Katz told local Israeli television. "Poles collaborated with the Nazis, certainly."

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Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari was summoned by Poland's government Friday and was asked to clarify Netanyahu's comments.

Morawiecki said in an interview published Sunday by a Polish news agency that Azari explained that Netanyahu was referring to individual cases of Poles collaborating with Nazis.

Poland then summoned Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari Friday for clarification of Netanyahu's comments.

Tensions between Israel and Poland ran high last year after Poland introduced new legislation that would make the use of phrases such as "Polish death camps" punishable by up to three years in prison.

Many Poles still refuse to accept research showing thousands participated in the Holocaust in addition to the thousands who risked their lives to help the Jews.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday handed over his role as foreign minister to intelligence minister Israel Katz, giving up the portfolio he has held since 2015.

Netanyahu's decision to appoint Katz as acting foreign minister came after an advocacy group, the Movement for Quality Government, went to court to press the prime minister to stop serving as foreign minister as well.