Warsaw defends restitution reforms assailed by Israel

WARSAW — Poland is defending planned changes to its property restitution regulations, after Israel said the reforms were “immoral” and would prevent Jewish claims for compensation or property seized during the Holocaust and communist times.

The U.S. State Department strongly criticized the changes and urged Poland to abandon them.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder sharply condemned the draft law, calling it a “slap in the face to what remains of Polish Jewry and survivors of Nazi brutality everywhere. It also sets a terrible precedent throughout Europe as survivors and descendants continue to seek justice.“

Lauder said the time has come for the “international Jewish community to reevaluate our relationship with a government that is behaving with unimaginable callousness and is emulating the worst traditions in Polish history rather than the best and most uplifting ones.”

Poland’s Foreign Ministry said the reforms were misunderstood and that they would not stop restitution claims being made — as is the case now — through courts.

The Israeli Embassy had charged that the changes being processed in parliament would “make it impossible” for seized Jewish property to be returned. It said they would also prevent Holocaust survivors and their heirs from seeking compensation. Poland was home to a vibrant Jewish community for many centuries, until the Nazi German invasion in World War II.

“This immoral law will have a serious impact on the relations between our countries,” the embassy said on Twitter.

Poland’s Foreign Ministry replied that the comments “are indicative of ignorance of the facts and the Polish law.”

The U.S. was also critical of the legislation with State Department spokesperson Ned Price saying that the changes were a “step in the wrong direction” while urging Poland “not to move this legislation forward.”

The changes were ordered in 2015 by Poland’s top Constitutional Tribunal and set a 30year statute of limitation on challenges to administrative decisions issued by various offices in gross violation of the law. They are intended to end fraud and irregularities in property restitution in Warsaw, Krakow and other cities and locations.

The changes still need approval from the Senate and from President Andrzej Duda before they can become law.