ANTI-SEMITISM AND THE POLISH GOVERNMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 WARSAW 001489

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/18/2021
TAGS: PREL PGOV KNAR PL
SUBJECT: ANTI-SEMITISM AND THE POLISH GOVERNMENT

REF: WARSAW 992

Classified By: Acting Political Counselor David Van Cleve for
reasons 1.5 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: Poland's ruling Law and Justice Party
(PiS) is stung by criticism that it is anti-Semitic, gutting
Holocaust education, and too slow to act on long delayed
private property restitution, but does not have a strategy to
deal with these problems. PiS points to its heretofore good
track record on a range of issues important to the
international and local Jewish communities, and the GOP's
generally excellent relations with Israel. However, it has
done little to nothing to rein in the extremist views
expressed by some members of the League of Polish Families
(LPR),its junior coalition partner, whose leader, Roman
Giertych, is a lightning rod for criticism. Giertych is
dogged by the public perception that even if he is not
anti-Semitic himself, his party includes leaders who promote
anti-Semitic and homophobic views in the name of protecting
the Polish nation. As long as LPR remains in government and
Giertych fails to distance himself from extremists within his
party, the coalition government will continue to face charges
that it turns a blind eye to hateful views. End Summary.

Sensitivity to Negative Press
--------------


2. (C) Highly sensitive to criticism, notably from the
foreign press, PiS officials chafe against the perception
that their party is anti-Semitic. Officials at every level
of government have taken umbrage to negative international
press about Poland and anti-Semitism, notably in the New York
Times and relating to the publication of Jan Gross's new book
on the Kielce pogrom in 1946. A number of these articles
have drawn misleading comparisons between Poland today and
the bleak situation facing Holocaust survivors in Poland
sixty years ago, immediately following World War II.

PiS Viewed Positively by Jewish Leaders
--------------


3. (U) The issue of anti-Semitism surfaced anew in Poland at
the same time as the public attack on Rabbi Michael
Schudrich, an American citizen who is the Rabbi of Warsaw and
Lodz. As reported reftel, Schudrich was punched and
pepper-sprayed in late May, 2006, by a skinhead who shouted
"Poland for Poles," a well-known anti-Semitic epithet from
the inter-war period. In response to the attack, then PM
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz called Rabbi Schudrich within hours.
President Lech Kaczynski met with Schudrich personally within
three days, and police in late June arrested his alleged
attacker, who faces criminal charges. PiS officials -- and
the politically astute Rabbi -- are quick to point to these
efforts, and statements decrying the assault, as strong
evidence that Poland is not, as some charge, a hot bed of
anti-Semitism. Schudrich himself pointed this out in a
letter to the editor of the New York Times.


4. (U) Indeed, local Jewish leaders commend the Kaczynski
for their history of support. When he was mayor of Warsaw,
President Lech Kaczynski was widely credited with breathing
new life into the proposed Museum of the History of Jews in
Poland by ramming through the city bureaucracy a plan to
donate the necessary land for the museum's construction.
That museum is scheduled to break ground this year and open
in 2009. Kaczynski equally secured a favorable lease for the
museum staff's offices in the center of the capitol. As the
chairman of the Sejm's Treasury Committee, former PM
Marcinkiewicz was also instrumental in drafting legislation
to provide for private property restitution. Although that
effort has yet to pass, Marcinkiewicz won high marks from
local and foreign Jewish leaders for his expertise and
efforts. Jewish leaders were effusive when PiS unexpectedly
won both parliamentary and presidential elections last fall
because of PiS's proven, positive track record on
Polish-Jewish relations. In addition to these efforts, the
government continues to maintain close ties with Israel,
making Poland one of Tel Aviv's steadiest allies in Europe.

So What Went Wrong?
--------------


5. (C) Despite the good track record, Jewish and Israeli
audiences have been aghast at the elevation of two Polish
fringe political parties, Self Defense (SO) and the League of
Polish Families (LPR) to the government coalition. Allied
with SO and LPR, PiS at last has achieved a parliamentary
majority that permits it to accelerate its efforts on a wide
range of domestic political projects, notably focused on
corruption and rooting out vestiges of Communist-era
influence. PiS's singular focus on vanquishing the remaining
elements of a shadowy network of businesses, government and
military officials, led to a marriage of convenience that is
unpalatable to a majority of Poles (who by a wide margin
dislike SO and LPR) and the international Jewish community.

Restitution Plan Held Hostage to Political Divisions
-------------- --------------


6. (C) Restitution is an example of politics holding
sensible ideas hostage. While most centrist parties agree
with PiS that Poland should do something to address private
property restitution, neither SO nor LPR support the effort.
The government has proposed legislation, identical to the
bill proposed by the former SLD government, awaiting action
in the Sejm, and sent two senior GOP officials to Washington
and New York to discuss the plan with USG and Jewish leaders
in April, before the coalition deal with SO and LPR was
struck. However, with PiS's focus elsewhere, it seems
unlikely that the government will move forward on restitution
legislation, which would require twisting the arms of its
reluctant junior partners, and then possibly crafting a
compromise with the opposition -- not a likely proposition in
the negative political environment here.


7. (C) SO gets its share of criticism owing to the honorary
degree awarded to its leader, Andrej Lepper, from the
virulently anti-Semitic Academy of Personnel Management
(MAUP) in Ukraine. When asked why he failed to distance
himself from that institution, Lepper brazenly challenged one
journalist to "go ahead, and write that I'm an anti-Semite."
The majority of criticism, however, has been leveled
understandably against Roman Giertych and LPR.

LPR and the Political Legacy of Anti-Semitism
--------------


8. (C) Giertych, in some measure, suffers from a family
history that is without question anti-Semitic. His
grandfather, Jedrzej, was a leader of Poland's National
Democratic Party (Endecja),which promoted nationalist,
anti-Semitic policies in the inter-war period. The youth arm
of that party, Mlodzierz Wszechpolska (All-Poland Youth)
supported an economic boycott against Jews and policies
restricting Jews access to higher education. Giertych's
father, Maciej, LPR's Presidential candidate last year and a
member of the European Parliament, is equally viewed as an
anti-Semite stemming in part from statements like those he
made urging authorities to avoid "press outlets controlled by
the Jews" in restoring order during Martial Law. Maciej
Giertych caused a flap in the European Parliament earlier
this month when he praised fascist dictactor Francisco Franco
as a man who maintained order and supported a strongly
Catholic vision of society.


9. (C) While not wanting to visit the sins of the father(s)
on the (grand)son, Giertych has been quick to use his
family's affiliation when it will benefit him politically.
For instance, Giertych's rise to political fame came through
a revitalized All-Poland Youth, which he helped form in 1989,
notably bearing the same name as its anti-Semitic, inter-war
predecessor. And while he has studiously avoided making
anti-Semitic remarks, he was criticized widely after Rabbi
Schudrich's assault for failing to address the issue
squarely. Giertych's comments, that "LPR is not
anti-Semitic" and "hooliganism can happen anywhere," struck
many as faint, notably compared to the unequivocal statements
by PiS officials. Moreover, he has done nothing to stop
other LPR members from making outrageous statements, such as
his deputy, Wojciech Wierzejski, who urged violence against
gay rights advocates in Warsaw's recent Equality Parade.
"Perverts," Wierzejski opined, "should be beaten with bats."
Giertych steadfastly has supported the appointment of Piotr
Farfal, a 28-year old lawyer with ties to All-Poland Youth,
to a senior position at Polish National Television, despite
revelations in the press that Farfal published a neo-Nazi
paper for several years as a teenager, which included
shocking characterizations of Jews. Farfal remains in his
job.

Ministry of Education
--------------


10. (C) The GOP's frustration with the anti-Semitic label is
exacerbated by Giertych's plans to promote "patriotic
education" in his capacity as Minister of Education. As part
of that effort, funding to several NGOs for
Holocaust-education programming has been cut off as
"inconsistent with the Minister's plan for patriotic
education." Giertych himself told the Ambassador in their
meeting on May 23 that "Holocaust education programming would
be an integral part of patriotic education," but working
level contacts at the Ministry of Education confirmed on July
17 that funding for teacher training (which includes many
Holocaust education programs) had "decreased seriously."


11. (C) Polish media widely reported on the Israeli Embassy's
boycott of Giertych and his LPR deputies, and Israeli
Ambassador David Peleg has repeatedly told the Ambassador
that his government will have nothing to do with LPR. In
contrast to U.S. diplomatic efforts, Peleg has lobbied
publicly for moving Holocaust education programming out of
the Ministry of Education altogether, which would salvage
programs that bring thousands of Israeli teenagers annually
to Poland to visits sites related to Jewish life as well as
Nazi concentration camps. The President's Chancellery
asserts it was working on a plan to remove Holocaust
education from the Ministry of Education when Peleg's public
remarks forced it to put the plan on hold. Giertych and
Peleg were both present at the commemoration last week of the
massacre in Jedwabne, a Polish town where local residents in
1941 herded their Jewish neighbors into a barn and burned
them alive. As part of his public boycott, Peleg refused to
meet with Giertych at the event.

Comment
--------------


12. (C) Giertych's high profile, however, has not lifted
LPR's fortunes. Two polls this week show LPR capturing only
one and two percent, respectively, of public support. The
Kaczynskis' plan for some time has been to move PiS to the
right and devour the competition, and all indications are
that this plan is succeeding. But the Kaczynskis' inward
focus on domestic politics comes at a real cost in terms of
Poland's standing and influence abroad, notably within the
EU. Furthermore, Lech Kaczynski's recent decision to skip
the Weimar summit with President Chirac and Chancellor Merkel
has exacerbated the Polish government's increasingly negative
and parochial image. Notwithstanding his solid track record,
Lech Kaczynski is concerned that Giertych is poised to hijack
his legacy goal of full Jewish-Polish reconciliation. The
European Parliament's condemnation of "the rise in racist,
xenophobic, anti-Semitic and homophobic intolerance in
Poland" equally suggests that PiS will continue to suffer
politically from its choice of coalition partners. Clearly
the GOP must move forward on a range of issues like private
property restitution, resolving property disputes,
recommiting to Holocaust education, and high profile
initiatives such as marshalling resources for improvements to
the Treblinka death camp. If progress is not made soon on
Holocaust education, the Embassy may consider ways to step up
the pressure for action (septel). PiS is not an anti-Semitic
party. But this aside, distrust of Roman Giertych and LPR is
likely to continue to damage Poland's standing as long as he
remains in the government.
HILLAS