JERUSALEM — An off-hand comment by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Warsaw about Poland and the Holocaust looks to overshadow a summit of central European leaders this week in Israel.

Poland’s abrupt decision to downgrade its participation in the upcoming Visegrad conference suddenly cast a pall over the gathering, which Netanyahu has touted as a major milestone in his outreach to emerging democracies in eastern Europe and his broader goal of countering the criticism Israel typically faces in international forums.

The crisis was sparked last week when Netanyahu told reporters that “Poles cooperated with the Nazis.” The seemingly innocuous comment infuriated his Polish hosts, who reject suggestions that their country collaborated with Hitler.

Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, announced Sunday that he would be skipping this week’s Visegrad summit, a gathering with fellow prime ministers from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Tuesday’s meeting in Jerusalem is the first time the gathering is being held outside of Europe.

But lost in the diplomatic uproar was that Netanyahu was actually defending his close alliance with Poland and other eastern European leaders when he made his comments.

Historians and domestic critics have accused Netanyahu of cozying up too tightly to nationalistic leaders who have promoted a distorted image of the Holocaust and turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism associated with them.

Morawiecki himself last year equated Polish perpetrators of the Holocaust to supposed “Jewish perpetrators.” Netanyahu has recently hosted leaders of Lithuania, Ukraine and other countries who have engaged in selective World War II-era commemorations that play down their countries’ culpability while making heroes out of anti-Soviet nationalists involved in the mass killing of Jews.

In response to a question from The Associated Press during his two-day visit to Warsaw, Netanyahu said he raises the issue of historical revisionism with the various leaders. He rejected the notion he was a partner to diminishing anyone’s complicity in the genocide of Jews in World War II.

“I know the history. I don’t starch it and I don’t whitewash it. In Lithuania, in particular, there were some horrible things. No one is concealing that,” said Netanyahu, the son of a historian. “This whole idea that we diminish history — we don’t distort, and we don’t hide, and no one has any interest in that, on the contrary.”

In the same briefing with his travelling press corps, Netanyahu tried to deflect prominent criticism by Israeli historians of the deal he struck with Polish leaders over their country’s controversial Holocaust speech law, which criminalized blaming the Polish nation for crimes committed against Jews during World War II.

Israeli officials saw it as an attempt by Poland to suppress discussion of the well-documented killing of Jews by Poles during and after the wartime German occupation.

“Poles collaborated with the Nazis and I don’t know anyone who was ever sued for such a statement,” Netanyahu told the reporters.

However, some media outlets reported him saying “THE Poles,” which set off an angry rebuke in Warsaw, including a summoning of the Israeli ambassador for clarifications. Netanyahu’s office said he was misquoted and blamed the misunderstanding on an editing error in an Israeli newspaper.

The Polish government nonetheless said it considered that response insufficient and threatened to withdraw from the conference.

Netanyahu’s office then reiterated that he “spoke of Poles and not the Polish people or the country of Poland.” That only got him in hotter water at home for seemingly catering to the Polish obsession over his wording.

“The prime minister of the Jewish state is selling out the memory of the Holocaust for a dubious alliance with an anti-Semitic leader,” said Tamar Zandberg, leader of the opposition Meretz party.

The summit is expected to go forth this week in Jerusalem even without Morawiecki, with Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz replacing him.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is expected to attend, is another such leader who has trod into the sensitive terrain of World War II conduct. He has lavished praise on Miklos Horthy, Hungary’s World War II-era ruler, who introduced anti-Semitic laws and collaborated with the Nazis. Orban also has backed a state-funded museum that experts say plays down the role of Hungarian collaborators and also used anti-Semitic imagery in a campaign against the liberal American-Hungarian billionaire George Soros.

When pressed by the AP, though, Netanyahu came to his ally’s defense.

“His response was the most direct, saying ‘we are not willing to accept this,’” Netanyahu responded. “He (Orban) attacked Horthy at some point. They are going the furthest here.”

Netanyahu also addressed his warm welcome in January to President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, whose parliament had just designated the birthday of Ukrainian wartime collaborator Stepan Bandera a national holiday.

Bandera’s forces fought alongside the Nazis and were implicated in the murder of thousands of Jews. The same day Poroshenko was visiting Israel, another memorial was being erected in Kiev for Symon Petliura, whose troops are linked to pogroms that killed as many as 50,000 Jews after World War I.

Netanyahu said he was not aware of that specifically but that he had some discussions with Poroshenko on the larger issue.

“I spoke to him too. I speak to them all. It’s not that we can’t raise the issue. We raise it freely,” he insisted.

Still, he then quickly shifted attention toward the contemporary anti-Semitism from the “anarchist left” and Muslim communities.

“I think the mass of anti-Semitism today in Europe is what is happening in western Europe,” Netanyahu said. “What is happening in Britain is astounding. This is the new phenomenon. There is the anti-Semitism of the right that hasn’t changed. That existed and still exists.”

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Image copyright Reuters Image caption Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (L) met Mr Netanyahu in Warsaw this month

A summit of central European leaders in Israel has been cancelled because of an Israel-Poland row over the Holocaust.

Poland withdrew after being angered by comments from Israeli leaders about Polish complicity in the Holocaust.

In particular, Israel's acting Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz used the phrase, "Poles imbibe anti-Semitism with their mother's milk".

Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews, mostly in Poland. Some Poles did collaborate with the Nazis.

Mr Katz's remarks were "racist and unacceptable", Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.

There was also Polish fury at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for saying "Poles co-operated with the Germans" during the Holocaust.

About six million Polish citizens died in World War Two, of whom about three million were Jews.

The meeting hosted by Israel was meant to bring together the four-nation Visegrad Group: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

But on Monday Israel said the three prime ministers attending - without Poland - would have bilateral meetings with Mr Netanyahu.

"It will not be called Visegrad, because this entails the presence of all four," an Israeli spokesperson said. "It's going to be a summit with Visegrad members."

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Auschwitz, 1944: German SS guards carried out industrial-scale murder in occupied Poland

The Polish government says its withdrawal is "an unequivocal signal to other governments and international opinion that historical truth is fundamental".

Netanyahu's EU strategy backfires

By BBC Jerusalem correspondent Tom Bateman

Mr Netanyahu has spent the last decade in office watching a wave of populist leaders come to prominence around the world.

He has often embraced the rise of politicians who - mirroring his own impact on Israeli politics - combined muscular self-interest in foreign policy with attacks on established "elites" or the media at home.

In the Visegrad Four leaders he saw a potent counterweight within the EU to what he believes is the bloc's anti-Israel stance.

But for many critics in Israel this approach was always bound to backfire.

They saw him as cosying up to a nationalist government in Poland they believed had tried to diminish the widespread cases of Polish collaboration with the Nazis during the Holocaust. And in the case of Viktor Orban in Hungary - to a leader accused by Jews in his own country of anti-Semitism.

What caused this escalation?

There is long-running tension between Poland's conservative government and Israel over the Holocaust.

Last year a Polish law made it an offence to allege that the Polish nation was complicit in Nazi crimes.

Prime Minister Morawiecki then suggested that some Jews were willing collaborators in the Holocaust, provoking a furious response in Israel.

He told a journalist at the Munich Security Conference in February 2018: "Of course it's not going to be punishable, [it's] not going to be seen as criminal to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian; not only German perpetrators," he said.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Poles protested outside the Israeli embassy on 15 February

On Sunday, Israel's acting Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said "Poles imbibe anti-Semitism with their mother's milk", quoting the late Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir.

That in turn enraged Poland, which summoned Israeli ambassador Anne Azari to be warned that Poland could boycott the Visegrad summit.

Mr Morawiecki then pulled out, saying of Mr Katz's remarks: "These words are unacceptable both in diplomatic and public terms. Poles suffered [from Nazi Germany] the most, along with Jews and Roma [Gypsies]." On Monday Poland withdrew from the summit completely.

Research shows that thousands of Poles collaborated with the Nazis; but many other Poles risked their lives to help Jews - a fact recognised by Israel's Yad Vashem remembrance centre.

The Nazis built many of their most notorious death camps in Poland after occupying the country at the beginning of the war in 1939.

The Polish government argues that for too long Poles have been wrongly linked to crimes committed by Nazi Germany on Polish territory.</s>WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland pulled out of a planned summit in Israel on Monday, its prime minister said, after Israel’s acting foreign minister said “many Poles” had collaborated with the Nazis in World War Two and shared responsibility for the Holocaust.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki branded the remarks “racist and unacceptable”. He had previously said he would not join Tuesday’s gathering of central European leaders in Israel but said that no Polish officials would now attend.

The leaders of the other three ‘Visegrad Group’ nations - Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - all still planned to attend the talks, Israel said, but Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said they would instead consist of bilateral discussions and that the summit would be rescheduled for later in 2019.

The diplomatic spat between Poland and Israel has been escalating since Friday, when Israeli media reported remarks by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday suggesting Polish complicity in the Holocaust.

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

Israel’s Acting Foreign Minister Israel Katz exacerbated the dispute on Monday when he told Israel’s Army Radio: “Many Poles collaborated with the Nazis and took part in the destruction of the Jews during the Holocaust.”

Katz also quoted comments attributed to Israel’s late prime minister Yitzhak Shamir: “Shamir said that every Pole suckled anti-Semitism with his mother’s milk. Nobody will tell us how to express our stance and how to honor the dead.”

The Polish decision is a blow for Netanyahu, who had hoped the Visegrad summit would burnish his diplomatic credentials ahead of Israel’s April 9 election. He sees the Visegrad-4 as a counterbalance to western European countries, which tend to be more critical of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.

“There will be no full V4 meeting. Three PMs are arriving will hold meetings with (Israel’s) PM,” Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said in a text message.

Morawiecki said he was in “constant contact” with Poland’s Visegrad partners and said they understood Warsaw’s stance.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a close ally of Poland, has also fostered good relations with Israel and was due to hold a bilateral meeting with Netanyahu on Monday, his press chief said.

Before World War Two Poland was home to one of the world’s biggest Jewish communities but it was almost entirely wiped out by the Nazis.

Tensions between Israel and Poland also rose last year after Poland introduced new legislation that would have made the use of phrases such as “Polish death camps” punishable by up to three years in prison.

After pressure from the U.S. government and an outcry in Israel, Poland watered down the legislation, removing the prison sentences.</s>Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has cancelled a trip to Israel in the wake of reported remarks made by his Israeli counterpart suggesting Polish complicity during the Holocaust, an aide in his office told Polish media on Sunday.

A government spokeswoman confirmed to the Reuters news agency that Prime Minister Morawiecki will not attend the summit and that Poland will send Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz instead.

Morawiecki informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his decision to cancel his visit in a telephone call on Sunday afternoon, spokeswoman Joanna Kopcinska said.

The summit of four Central and Eastern European countries is set to be held in Jerusalem this week.

The decision comes after Netanyahu was quoted as saying that "Poles cooperated with the Germans" in the Holocaust.

Netanyahu's office has insisted that the Israeli leader was "misquoted" and had not implicated all Poles in the Holocaust.

In a statement, the Israeli prime minister's office said he had not cast any blanket blame, regarding Netanyahu's previous remarks on the question of Polish collaboration with Nazi occupiers.

Israel's Ambassador to Poland Anna Azari was summoned by the Polish government on Friday and was asked to clarify Netanyahu's comments.

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

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

After pressure from the US government and an outcry in Israel, Poland watered down the legislation, removing the prison sentences.

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.</s>JERUSALEM — An off-hand comment by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Warsaw about Poland and the Holocaust looks to overshadow a summit of central European leaders this week in Israel.

Poland’s abrupt decision to downgrade its participation in the upcoming Visegrad conference suddenly cast a pall over the gathering, which Netanyahu has touted as a major milestone in his outreach to emerging democracies in eastern Europe and his broader goal of countering the criticism Israel typically faces in international forums.

The crisis was sparked last week when Netanyahu told reporters that “Poles co-operated with the Nazis.” The seemingly innocuous comment infuriated his Polish hosts, who reject suggestions that their country collaborated with Hitler.

Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, announced Sunday that he would be skipping this week’s Visegrad summit, a gathering with fellow prime ministers from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Tuesday’s meeting in Jerusalem is the first time the gathering is being held outside of Europe.

But lost in the diplomatic uproar was that Netanyahu was actually defending his close alliance with Poland and other eastern European leaders when he made his comments.

Historians and domestic critics have accused Netanyahu of cozying up too tightly to nationalistic leaders who have promoted a distorted image of the Holocaust and turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism associated with them.

Morawiecki himself last year equated Polish perpetrators of the Holocaust to supposed “Jewish perpetrators.” Netanyahu has recently hosted leaders of Lithuania, Ukraine and other countries who have engaged in selective World War II-era commemorations that play down their countries’ culpability while making heroes out of anti-Soviet nationalists involved in the mass killing of Jews.

In response to a question from The Associated Press during his two-day visit to Warsaw, Netanyahu said he raises the issue of historical revisionism with the various leaders. He rejected the notion he was a partner to diminishing anyone’s complicity in the genocide of Jews in World War II.

“I know the history. I don’t starch it and I don’t whitewash it. In Lithuania, in particular, there were some horrible things. No one is concealing that,” said Netanyahu, the son of a historian. “This whole idea that we diminish history — we don’t distort, and we don’t hide, and no one has any interest in that, on the contrary.”

In the same briefing with his travelling press corps, Netanyahu tried to deflect prominent criticism by Israeli historians of the deal he struck with Polish leaders over their country’s controversial Holocaust speech law, which criminalized blaming the Polish nation for crimes committed against Jews during World War II.

Israeli officials saw it as an attempt by Poland to suppress discussion of the well-documented killing of Jews by Poles during and after the wartime German occupation.

“Poles collaborated with the Nazis and I don’t know anyone who was ever sued for such a statement,” Netanyahu told the reporters.

However, some media outlets reported him saying “THE Poles,” which set off an angry rebuke in Warsaw, including a summoning of the Israeli ambassador for clarifications. Netanyahu’s office said he was misquoted and blamed the misunderstanding on an editing error in an Israeli newspaper.

The Polish government nonetheless said it considered that response insufficient and threatened to withdraw from the conference.

Netanyahu’s office then reiterated that he “spoke of Poles and not the Polish people or the country of Poland.” That only got him in hotter water at home for seemingly catering to the Polish obsession over his wording.

“The prime minister of the Jewish state is selling out the memory of the Holocaust for a dubious alliance with an anti-Semitic leader,” said Tamar Zandberg, leader of the opposition Meretz party.

The summit is expected to go forth this week in Jerusalem even without Morawiecki, with Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz replacing him.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is expected to attend, is another such leader who has trod into the sensitive terrain of World War II conduct. He has lavished praise on Miklos Horthy, Hungary’s World War II-era ruler, who introduced anti-Semitic laws and collaborated with the Nazis. Orban also has backed a state-funded museum that experts say plays down the role of Hungarian collaborators and also used anti-Semitic imagery in a campaign against the liberal American-Hungarian billionaire George Soros.

When pressed by the AP, though, Netanyahu came to his ally’s defence.

“His response was the most direct, saying ‘we are not willing to accept this,”‘ Netanyahu responded. “He (Orban) attacked Horthy at some point. They are going the furthest here.”

Netanyahu also addressed his warm welcome in January to President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, whose parliament had just designated the birthday of Ukrainian wartime collaborator Stepan Bandera a national holiday.

Bandera’s forces fought alongside the Nazis and were implicated in the murder of thousands of Jews. The same day Poroshenko was visiting Israel, another memorial was being erected in Kyiv for Symon Petliura, whose troops are linked to pogroms that killed as many as 50,000 Jews after World War I.

Netanyahu said he was not aware of that specifically but that he had some discussions with Poroshenko on the larger issue.

“I spoke to him too. I speak to them all. It’s not that we can’t raise the issue. We raise it freely,” he insisted.

Still, he then quickly shifted attention toward the contemporary anti-Semitism from the “anarchist left” and Muslim communities.

“I think the mass of anti-Semitism today in Europe is what is happening in western Europe,” Netanyahu said. “What is happening in Britain is astounding. This is the new phenomenon. There is the anti-Semitism of the right that hasn’t changed. That existed and still exists.”</s>FILE PHOTO: Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu look on during the Middle East summit in Warsaw, Poland, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's Prime Minister has canceled a trip to Israel in the wake of reported remarks made by Israel's prime minister suggesting Polish complicity during the Holocaust, an aide in his office told Polish media on Sunday.

A government spokeswoman confirmed to Reuters that Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will not attend the summit and that Poland will send foreign minister Jacek Czaputowicz instead.

Morawiecki informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his decision to cancel his visit in a telephone call on Sunday afternoon, spokeswoman Joanna Kopcinska said.

The summit of four central and Eastern European countries is set to be held in Jerusalem this week.

Poland's government has sought to debunk references of potential Polish collaboration in the Holocaust, in an effort to "fight for the truth," Morawiecki told Poland's parliament last year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement the prime minister, who was in Warsaw for a U.S.-sponsored Middle East conference when he made the comments, had been misquoted by The Jerusalem Post, which issued a corrected story.

In a later statement, Netanyahu's office said in his remarks on the question of Polish collaboration with Nazi occupiers, he had not cast any blanket blame.

Israel's ambassador to Poland Anna Azari was summoned by Poland's government on Friday and was asked to clarify Netanyahu's comments.

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

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.

After pressure from the U.S. government and an outcry in Israel, Poland watered down the legislation, removing the prison sentences.

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.</s>The decision to hold the annual “V4” summit in Jerusalem — the first time the bloc of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia had met outside Europe — was intended to build on the growing bonds between Israel and the central European nations.

But instead, it has highlighted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contradictory new alliances as a spat intensified over the role Poland played in the Holocaust.

Warsaw officially pulled out of the summit on Monday after comments by Israel’s acting foreign minister Israel Katz, who quoted a former Israeli prime minister as saying that “Poles suckle anti-Semitism from their mother’s milk.”

Poland had already downgraded its attendance at the event, announcing that its foreign minister Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz would attend instead of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki after Netanyahu was quoted by Israeli media as saying that “Poles cooperated with the Germans” during the Holocaust.

That deeply rankled Poland, which last year introduced a new law calling for prison sentences of up to three years for accusing the nation of crimes committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. It took aim at phrases such as “Polish death camps.”

The legislation triggered a diplomatic crisis with Israel as critics accused Poland’s nationalist government of attempting to suppress historic inquiry and whitewashing the past. Poland later watered down the law, but Netanyahu’s comments to reporters after a summit in Warsaw last week tore open the wound once more.

Israel’s foreign ministry said Tuesday’s meeting would no longer be an official summit of the “Visegrad Four,” known as the “V4,” due to Poland’s withdrawal. It denied reports that the Czech Republic’s prime minister had also withdrawn.

Netanyahu has been keen to build ties with central European countries such as Poland and Hungary with which Israel sees itself as increasingly politically aligned, despite fears the nations are slipping further into autocracy. Israel views the countries as important allies within the European Union because of their sympathetic stance toward the country in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 



But the alliances have brought criticism that Netanyahu is selling out Jewish history to advance his political aims.

“The prime minister of the Jewish state sells out the memory of the Holocaust for a dubious alliance with an anti-Semitic leader,” said Tamar Zandberg, leader of the opposition Meretz party.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also stirred controversy in a 2017 speech by praising Miklos Horthy, who collaborated with the Nazis to deport Hungarian Jews.

Hungary later clarified that Horthy had both positive and “very negative periods” and that the country had no tolerance for anti-Semitism, after which Netanyahu went ahead with a planned visit to Hungary to meet with Orban. There are also growing concerns among Hungary’s Jewish population that a Holocaust museum in Budapest will gloss over history.

Meanwhile, Orban was accused of using anti-Semitic tropes in his campaign against the Hungarian-born Jewish American financier George Soros, who last year announced that the university he founded in Budapest had been forced out of the country.

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news</s>File -- In this Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019 photo Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, attend a group photo during a meeting in Warsaw, Poland. Poland's prime minister canceled plans for his country to send a delegation to meeting in Jerusalem on Monday after the acting Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said that Poles "collaborated with the Nazis" and "sucked anti-Semitism from their mothers' milk". (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Latest on the dispute between Poland and Israel (all times local):

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis says a planned summit meeting in Israel with his counterparts from Hungary, Poland and Slovakia has been canceled over a bitter new Holocaust spat between Poland and Israel.

Babis, who is leaving for Israel later Monday, told reporters: "No V4 meeting in Israel is going to happen."

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia form an informal group known as the Visegrad group, or V4. The prime ministers regularly invite counterparts from other countries for those summits.

Babis says only bilateral meetings are planned in Israel. The prime ministers of Slovakia and Hungaria are already in Israel.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon confirmed the cancellation of the summit.

"There will be no full V4 meeting (it requires the presence of all four). Three PMs are arriving and will hold meetings with PM," he said in a statement.

Babis says a V4 summit might take place in the second half of the year when the Czech Republic holds the V4 presidency.

Poland's prime minister says his country is not sending a delegation to a meeting in Jerusalem after the acting Israeli foreign minister said that Poles "collaborated with the Nazis" and "sucked anti-Semitism from their mothers' milk."

The developments mark a new low in a bitter conflict over how to remember and characterize Polish actions toward Jews during the German occupation of Poland in World War II.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the remarks by acting foreign minister Israel Katz "unacceptable" and "racist."

Morawiecki had already announced Sunday that he was pulling out of the meeting in Israel on Monday and Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leaders of four central European nations. That had followed a comment by Netanyahu last week about Polish cooperation with the Nazis.

A government official says Poland is considering pulling out altogether from a visit to Israel over a comment made by the acting Israeli foreign minister, the latest in a bitter new Holocaust spat between the two nations.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki already pulled out of the meeting Monday and Tuesday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by leaders from Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz was tapped to go in his place.

On Monday, Michal Dworczyk, the head Morawiecki's office, said Czaputowicz's attendance is now in doubt over comments made by Israel Katz, the acting foreign minister.

Katz said Sunday that Poles "sucked anti-Semitism from their mothers' milk," citing something once said by former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, whose father was murdered by Poles.</s>Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis says a planned summit meeting in Israel with his counterparts from Hungary, Poland and Slovakia has been cancelled over a bitter new Holocaust spat between Poland and Israel. Babis, who is leaving for Israel later Monday, told reporters: “No V4 meeting in Israel is going to happen.” The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia form an informal group known as the Visegrad group, or V4. The prime ministers regularly invite counterparts from other countries for those summits.

Babis says only bilateral meetings are planned in Israel. The prime ministers of Slovakia and Hungaria are already in Israel. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon confirmed the cancellation of the summit. “There will be no full V4 meeting (it requires the presence of all four). Three PMs are arriving and will hold meetings with PM,” he said in a statement. Babis says a V4 summit might take place in the second half of the year when the Czech Republic holds the V4 presidency.

Poland’s prime minister says his country is not sending a delegation to a meeting in Jerusalem after the acting Israeli foreign minister said that Poles “collaborated with the Nazis” and “sucked anti-Semitism from their mothers’ milk.”

The developments mark a new low in a bitter conflict over how to remember and characterize Polish actions toward Jews during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the remarks by acting foreign minister Israel Katz “unacceptable” and “racist.” Morawiecki had already announced Sunday that he was pulling out of the meeting in Israel on Monday and Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leaders of four central European nations. That had followed a comment by Netanyahu last week about Polish co-operation with the Nazis. A government official says Poland is considering pulling out altogether from a visit to Israel over a comment made by the acting Israeli foreign minister, the latest in a bitter new Holocaust spat between the two nations. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki already pulled out of the meeting Monday and Tuesday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by leaders from Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz was tapped to go in his place. On Monday, Michal Dworczyk, the head Morawiecki’s office, said Czaputowicz’s attendance is now in doubt over comments made by Israel Katz, the acting foreign minister. Katz said Sunday that Poles “sucked anti-Semitism from their mothers’ milk,” citing something once said by former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, whose father was murdered by Poles.</s>WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland pulled out of a planned summit in Israel on Monday, its prime minister said, after Israel’s acting foreign minister said “many Poles” had collaborated with the Nazis in World War Two and shared responsibility for the Holocaust.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki branded the remarks “racist and unacceptable”. He had previously said he would not join Tuesday’s gathering of central European leaders in Israel but said that no Polish officials would now attend.

The leaders of the other three ‘Visegrad Group’ nations - Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - all still planned to attend the talks, Israel said, but Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said they would instead consist of bilateral discussions and that the summit would be rescheduled for later in 2019.

The diplomatic spat between Poland and Israel has been escalating since Friday, when Israeli media reported remarks by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday suggesting Polish complicity in the Holocaust.

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

Israel’s Acting Foreign Minister Israel Katz exacerbated the dispute on Monday when he told Israel’s Army Radio: “Many Poles collaborated with the Nazis and took part in the destruction of the Jews during the Holocaust.”

Katz also quoted comments attributed to Israel’s late prime minister Yitzhak Shamir: “Shamir said that every Pole suckled anti-Semitism with his mother’s milk. Nobody will tell us how to express our stance and how to honour the dead.”

The Polish decision is a blow for Netanyahu, who had hoped the Visegrad summit would burnish his diplomatic credentials ahead of Israel’s April 9 election. He sees the Visegrad-4 as a counterbalance to western European countries, which tend to be more critical of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians.

“There will be no full V4 meeting. Three PMs are arriving will hold meetings with (Israel’s) PM,” Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said in a text message.

Morawiecki said he was in “constant contact” with Poland’s Visegrad partners and said they understood Warsaw’s stance.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a close ally of Poland, has also fostered good relations with Israel and was due to hold a bilateral meeting with Netanyahu on Monday, his press chief said.

Before World War Two Poland was home to one of the world’s biggest Jewish communities but it was almost entirely wiped out by the Nazis.

Tensions between Israel and Poland also rose last year after Poland introduced new legislation that would have made the use of phrases such as “Polish death camps” punishable by up to three years in prison.

After pressure from the U.S. government and an outcry in Israel, Poland watered down the legislation, removing the prison sentences.
A summit between Israel and the Visegrád Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) is cancelled following Poland's reaction and withdrawal as a result of Israeli officials' statements on the Holocaust alleging Polish involvement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will hold bilateral talks with the three prime ministers attending.