Poland has first ambassador to Israel since 2021 restitution law dispute

Poland has an ambassador to Israel for the first time since a diplomatic dispute between the two countries in 2021 triggered by Israel’s anger over a Polish property restitution law.

“After four years without a resident Polish ambassador in Israel, I was pleased this morning to receive the diplomatic credentials of new ambassador of Poland, Maciej Hunia,” announced Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday.

“His appointment marks an important step – both against the backdrop of the long and complex history between our nations, and because of Poland’s important voice in Europe and on the international stage at this critical time,” he added..

Hunia is the former head of Poland’s Military Intelligence Service (SWW) and Foreign Intelligence Agency (AW). He has never previously held an ambassadorial post, though briefly served as a diplomat at the Polish embassy in Prague

Speaking last year to The Times of Israel, Hunia said that “the entire democratic world should – must – support Israel in its fight against terrorists”. He also denied claims that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

“I’m absolutely sure that the Israeli army is not planning out operations which are going to kill innocent people,” said Hunia. “If you use airplanes against terrorists in urban areas, there must be collateral damage.”

Meanwhile, regarding the difficult issue of Poles’ actions during the Holocaust, Hunia said that he is “very proud of Poles who saved Jews [and] ashamed of Poles who betrayed Jews”.

In 2021, Poland withdrew its ambassador amid a row over a proposed restitution law that Israel said would have made it much harder for Holocaust survivors and their descendants to reclaim property in Poland stolen during or after the war.

Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid, called it “an immoral, antisemitic law”. Poland’s foreign ministry accused Lapid of “ill will” and a “complete lack of knowledge”, noting that the law pertains to all people – Jews and non-Jews – with restitution claims.

The United States also became embroiled in the dispute, with then Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying that Washington was “deeply concerned” about the proposed Polish law, which would “severely restrict restitution for Holocaust survivors”.

In August 2021, Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, signed the restitution bill into law. In response, Israel recalled its chargé d’affaires, who had been heading the embassy in Warsaw, and also made clear that Poland’s ambassador was not welcome to return to Tel Aviv.

In April 2022, talks between Duda and Herzog paved the way for the two countries to “restore relations on ambassadorial level”. Later that year, Israel’s ambassador, Yacov Livne, who had been nominated in 2020 but remained in Israel amid the dispute, was finally formally appointed as ambassador.

However, Poland’s embassy in Israel continued to operate without an ambassador amid further diplomatic disputes over Holocaust education trips and the killing of a Polish aid worker by an Israeli attack in Gaza.

Hunia’s appointment as ambassador was also caught up in a dispute between Poland’s current government, which took office in December 2023, and President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.

The president, who is formally responsible for appointing ambassadors, refused to sign off on nominations made by the foreign ministry in protest against the government’s move to recall 50 ambassadors appointed under PiS.

As a result, the ambassadors that the government wants to appoint have been formally given the title chargé d’affaires, rather than ambassador, but have been in effect heading their embassies.

Hunia is one such appointee. He has been running the embassy in Tel Aviv since October as chargé d’affaires. However, an agreement between Duda and the government in February this year to partially resolve their differences paved the way for Hunia to formally become ambassador.

Main image credit: Isaac Herzog/X