Israeli arrested for spitting on Polish ambassador amid ongoing tensions
Polish Ambassador to Israel Marek Magierowski in Jerusalem
From Times of Israel staff:
Poland’s ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski, said he was attacked Tuesday afternoon by a man in the street near the Polish embassy in Tel Aviv.
Magierowski said that he was outside the embassy building on Soutine Street when a man assaulted him and shouted at him.
The ambassador said that all he could make out from the shouting was “Polish, Polish,” but managed to take a picture of the attacker and his vehicle, which he then handed over to police.
Police on Wednesday morning said they had arrested a man whom they suspect spat at the ambassador.
The incident comes amid a bitter standoff between Poland and Israel over how to remember the Holocaust and over demands that Poland pay reparations for former Jewish properties that were seized by Nazi Germany and later nationalized by Poland’s communist regime.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki condemned the attack in a tweet, calling it “racist” and “xenophobic.”
Poland’s foreign ministry says it has summoned the Israeli ambassador in Warsaw, Anna Azari, to explain why the ambassador was assaulted.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the assault was being investigated and expressed “fullest sympathy to the ambassador and our shock at the attack.”
He later reiterated the statement in response to Morawiecki’s tweet, while vowing to update Polish officials on the investigation.