Ayelet Shaked
Ayelet ShakedFlash 90

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked slammed the joint statement of the governments of Israel and Poland on the amendment to Poland's controversial Holocaust Law.

"You cannot silence any criticism of a political claim," Shaked said. "The historical truth should be told and not distorted: Polish aid to Jews during the Holocaust was a relatively rare phenomenon and a violation of them, and even their murder was a common phenomenon."

"I suggest that everyone read Yad Vashem's document on the declaration and understand how wrong it is. The State of Israel must not be a signatory to this document, and therefore it must be annulled," added the justice minister.

Earlier, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem released a statement in which it said the "joint statement contains grave errors and deception."

"The essence of the statute remains unchanged even after the repeal of the aforementioned sections, including the possibility of real harm to researchers, unimpeded research, and the historical memory of the Holocaust.”

According to Yad Vashem, the joint statement by the Israeli and Polish government's created a false picture of the Polish government in exile during World War Two as having acted "to thwart the extermination of Polish Jewry" when in reality "the Polish Government-in-Exile, based in London, as well as the Delegatura (the representative organ of this Government in occupied Poland) did not act resolutely on behalf of Poland’s Jewish citizens at any point during the war. Much of the Polish resistance in its various movements not only failed to help Jews, but was also not infrequently actively involved in persecuting them.”