An Israeli mayor pulled out of a speech to students visiting Poland after he was told to omit passages that could contravene the country’s new law on Holocaust responsibility.
Eli Dukorsky, the mayor of Kiryat Bialik in northern Israel, said he had planned to mention the Jews who were murdered by Poles during the Holocaust in his speech, a joint appearance with the local Polish mayor.
But he cancelled after being told by officials that his speech would have to be redacted.
The cancelled speech could be the first example of censorship under the controversial new law.
Mr Dukorsky said he spoke every year at an event in Radomsko, which is twinned with Kiryat Bialik, and this was the first time he was asked to submit an advance text of his speech to officials, Haaretz reported.
He said it was “impossible” for him to accept the part of Mr Dukorsky’s speech that said: “Polish farmers killed 200,000 Jews during the war and that, of the six million Jews who were murdered, 200,000 were killed by Poles.”
He later delivered the original speech to the students at a private ceremony.
Source: Thejc
