Significant progress in the talks between Jerusalem and Warsaw on the renewal of the trips organized by the Ministry of Education to the extermination camps in Poland.
In recent weeks there have been rounds of talks between the countries on the controversial issues.
A government delegation from Israel recently went to Poland to look for solutions.
Several government officials in Israel and Poland told "Israel Today" that there has been a rapprochement between the parties.
"The full agreement will be reached soon", some report, and the assessment among the parties involved is that the change of government in Israel is a significant catalyst for the Poles to soften their positions, and this is due to the past experience and joint work of the Polish government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The mission crisis
The government's policy is contrary to the offensive line of former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who blatantly attacked the Polish government on several occasions.
According to the government officials, the agreements between the parties are still not complete and more work is required to close the last gaps, but the atmosphere on both sides is positive.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Prime Minister of Poland, Morawiecki (archive), photo: Reuters
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the restoration of the possibility to enter Poland freely in the late 1980s, about 40 thousand students and teenagers have toured the concentration and extermination camps of Poland, as part of official trips by the Ministry of Education.
In the last three years the journeys have stopped.
Initially, the corona crisis prevented entry into Poland.
About a year and a half ago, with the decline of the epidemic, a sharp conflict broke out between the countries, during which sharp statements were made by the Prime Minister at the time, Yair Lapid.
"We are not afraid of anti-Semitic threats and we will not blink in the face of the anti-democratic government of Poland," said Lapid, who instructed the Polish ambassador not to return from a vacation in Warsaw.
Lapid ordered the designated Israeli ambassador, Dr. Yaakov Livna, to remain in Israel, and at the same time Israel stopped the youth delegations going on educational tours of the extermination camps.
Attacked the policy of the Polish government, the former prime minister, Yair Lapid (archive), photo: Amos Ben Gershom/L.A.M.
an international effort
In Israel, the stoppage of the journeys was justified by Polish interference in the contents and security problems.
On top of that, the government in Warsaw claimed that there was no justification for armed Israeli security guards to accompany the youth's journeys.
In recent years, Poland has been working to change the image that stuck to it, as if it was, as a nation, part of the systematic extermination of the Jews by the Germans.
In the meantime, the country's president Yitzhak Herzog, who was involved in the international effort to calm the spirits in relations between Israel and Poland, is expected to fly to Poland after Passover.
As part of his visit to the country, he is expected to participate in events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
In the past year, several parties on the Israeli side have been working to resolve the issue of trips to Poland.
The Polish administration in the Ministry of Education is responsible for the technical arrangements for the trips, the Shin Bet is responsible for securing Israeli delegations abroad, as well as the Israeli ambassador Livna, who went to Poland following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and is highly regarded on the Polish side.
The officials refused to elaborate on how the controversial issues will be resolved, but noted that an announcement on the resolution of the crisis is expected soon.
An extensive article on the crisis between Israel and Poland - on Friday in the "Shishab" supplement
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