Israel recalls envoy to protest signing of Poland's anti-restitution law

“Poland today approved – not for the first time – an immoral, antisemitic law,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in video message he issued on Saturday night.

“This evening I instructed the charge d’affaires at our embassy in Warsaw [Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon] to return immediately to Israel for consultations, for an indefinite period of time,” Lapid said.

The newly appointed ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne, has been asked to remain in Israel “for the time being.”

In addition, Lapid asked Poland’s Ambassador Marek Magierowski, who is out of the country, not to return.

“He should use the time he has on his hands to explain to the Poles what the Holocaust means to Israel’s citizens and the extent to which we will not tolerate contempt for the memory of those who perished and for the memory of the Holocaust. It will not stop here,” Lapid said.

The Polish Foreign Ministry said in response that it took a negative view of Israel's response and its "groundless decision" to recall its envoy, a move it warned "seriously damaged" the relationship between the two countries.

It added that the Polish government would take "appropriate political and diplomatic actions, bearing in mind the principle of symmetry in bilateral relations."

Polish President Andrzej Duda signed legislation Saturday that restricts the rights of former prewar Polish property owners, including so-called Holocaust survivors and their descendants, from the right to make claims if their real estate was seized by the Nazis or nationalized by the Soviet-backed communist occupation regimes.