Polish Deputy FM says Israel consulted on judicial overhaul, then backtracked

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski spoke out as the Histadrut called a nationwide strike to protest the government's judicial reform process.

Polish and Israeli flags at a march next to Auschwitz in April (photo credit: REUTERS)
Polish and Israeli flags at a march next to Auschwitz in April
(photo credit: REUTERS)

Israel consulted with Warsaw over the country’s judicial reform program Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski told the media organization RMF24 during its morning talk show and then backtracked on his assertion.

“Of course, we are talking with Israel, and to some extent, we shared our experiences in this regard,” Jablonski.

“The Israeli side itself asked us about it...I'm telling the honest truth. Israel was interested in what was happening in Poland. We were interested in what was happening in Israel,” he explained.

Speaking out as Histadrut called a nationwide strike

He spoke out as the Histadrut called a nationwide strike to protest the government’s judicial reform process, which critics fear will weaken Israel’s liberal democracy transforming it into a more authoritarian democracy such as can be found in Poland or Hungary.

 Israelis block the Ayalon highway and clash with Police in Tel Aviv during a protest against the Israeli government's planned judicial overhaul on March 23, 2023.  (credit: ERIK MARMOR/FLASH90)
Israelis block the Ayalon highway and clash with Police in Tel Aviv during a protest against the Israeli government's planned judicial overhaul on March 23, 2023. (credit: ERIK MARMOR/FLASH90)

Jablonski then took to Twitter to backtrack on his statements, claiming that they had been misinterpreted.

“We shared our experience of reforms, social reaction” and other changes.

Jablonski said that the type of conversation that occurred was similar to an exchange of information with many other construes on the government’s own reform process.

“There is no sensation here. Please do not repeat the fake news that "we consulted the reform.”


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He added, “I didn't say anything like that because nothing like that happened.”

He then issued a second tweet to explain that people who interpreted his words to mean that Israel consulted with Poland on the reform process, had a very “vivid imagination.”

He spoke just one week after Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visited Poland and announced the resumption of the high school education trips to World War II concentration camps there, which are instrumental in their study of the Holocaust.

Poland also agreed to reinstate its Ambassador but did not provide a date for when an envoy would arrive. Jablonski also did not provide a date.