A week after finishing third in the Eurovision Song Contest, Noa Kirel is in trouble with Poland, one of the countries that gave her a doz foa (12 points). The deputy foreign minister and another member of Poland's parliament disavowed the singer's statement at the end of the competition, in which it was implied that Poland had something to do with the perpetration of the Holocaust.
"To get 12 points from Poland after almost the entire Kyrell family was murdered in the Holocaust is a victory," the singer said, referring to the results of the competition. Over the past week, the statement, which touches on a particularly sensitive point for the Polish people, seemed to slip under the radar, but on Saturday politicians and newspapers in the country spoke out against it.
"The fact that many people in Israel see Poland as an accomplice in committing German crimes is usually the result of a lack of knowledge and incomplete education," the Polish deputy foreign minister tweeted, arguing, among other things, that the nature of the organized trips by Israeli youth in the country played a part in the misconception. "We are starting a long process that will certainly not yield results immediately - but at the same time I am confident that in the long run it will allow us to build good Polish-Israeli relations, based on truth and mutual understanding that both our peoples were victims of German crimes," he added.
Afterwards, he called on Noa Kirel to visit his country, "She will be invited to Poland mainly to understand why she thinks this way about our country. We will explain to her and allow her to see with her own eyes the places where Nazi Germany committed cruel crimes against Poles and Jews in our country."
MP Anna Maria Jokowska also strongly condemned Kirel's statement on Twitter and asked the Israeli embassy in Poland for clarification: "Does this statement reflect the level of Holocaust education in Israel? Do young people in Israel think that the Holocaust was caused by Poland? That a young Israeli citizen can achieve a moral victory for it after many years, or what?"
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