Visegrad Group countries cancel Israeli meeting after comments about Poland

The Visegrad Group of four central European countries have cancelled their meeting in Israel after Poland pulled out in protest against an Israeli minister’s comments about alleged Polish collaboration during the Holocaust.

The leaders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary would instead hold separate meetings with Israeli leaders later this week, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced Poland’s withdrawal from the summit. He said acting Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz’s comments about Poland were “racist” and “unacceptable.”

Katz told Israeli television on Sunday that Poles had “collaborated with the Nazis” and “sucked anti-Semitism from their mothers’ milk.”

Via Dw