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Members of Israel Parliament Denounce Polish Anti-semitism, Urge Protest

March 20, 1968
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Knesset members of all factions, including the Communists, last night sharply assailed the Polish Government for its current campaign to make Poland’s surviving Jews the scapegoats for student riots and unrest. Speakers voiced their shock and disgust at the revival of official anti-Semitism in Poland after Prime Minister Eshkol denounced Warsaw’s drive against “Zionists and their sympathizers” and urged Polish Jews to immigrate to Israel.

M. Baram, of the United Labor Party, declared that the Jews have a long “blood reckoning” with Poland and called for the mobilization of world opinion against the Warsaw regime. H. Landau, of Gahal. the Herut-Liberal Party alignment, said the anti-Semitic statements by Polish leaders were “a wave of mud.” Gideon Hausner, of the Independent Liberal Party, who was the prosecutor in the Eichmann trial, said that “at long last the real face of Poland has been exposed.”

The Communist MK, S. Mikunis, maintained that the Polish tactics was evidence of “a shaky ideological system” and said it was a sequel to Poland’s one-sided support of the Arabs in the Six-Day War. Other speakers noted that the worst crimes perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews were committed on Polish soil while the Polish population did nothing to prevent them.

Menachem Beigin, Minister without Portfolio in the coalition government declared that Poland’s leaders should learn from history and renounce anti-Semitism. Mr. Beigin spoke on behalf of the Cabinet this afternoon in reply to three agenda motions concerning the anti-Jewish campaign in Poland. The matter was sent to committee for a study, the results of which will be announced after the Passover recess.

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