Two ultranationalists in Poland were sentenced to prison in connection with a 2016 rally that contained chants about the execution of “Zionists”.
Onet reported Thursday that one of those taking part in the rally in Bialystok was given a 12-month term – an unusually harsh punishment for such a crime in Poland – by the criminal tribunal in Warsaw. The court imposed a suspended sentence of six months on the other rallygoer. The defendants were not named in the Polish media.
The court said the harshly sentenced defendant had led chants at the rally about “Zionists would hang from trees instead of leaves”, which also included anti-Muslim chants. The chants were considered a racist incitement to violence.
The court also acquitted five others accused in connection with the rally organized by the ultranationalist group ONR.
In recent years, disputes over the history of World War II and the Holocaust restoration have soured relations between Israel and Poland, as well as Jewish groups in Poland and even the United States.
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In 2018, Poland’s right-wing government passed controversial legislation blaming the Polish nation for Nazi crimes, leading to a diplomatic crisis with Israel, which opposed legislation limiting free speech and Holocaust research on Polish complicity. done as.
Jewish groups are demanding that Poland offer compensation for all Jewish-owned property that was confiscated after the Holocaust and strained relations, leading last week to pass a bill that would make most such claims unacceptable. is.
That issue has fueled anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli rhetoric and actions in Poland in recent years.
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