The World Jewish Congress (WJC) made it clear this week that it has never proposed a boycott of Poland following the Polish government’s decision to suspend the process of restitution of seized property for financial reasons.
The Polish media reported that the WJC is advocating an economic boycott of Poland, based on statements made by Menachem Rosensaft, general coubnsel of the Jewish organization.
Rosensaft stated earlier this week that the Jewish community "should stop injecting tourist and other dollars into the Polish economy," prompting a wave of controversy.
In a statement, WJC Secretary General Michael Schneider said Rosensaft’s statements on the restitution issue "were entirely made in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the WJC."
"At no point has the WJC proposed a boycott of Poland, nor have we considered or discussed any such measures," he added.
The WJC reiterated WJC President Ronald S. Lauder’s position on the decision taken by the Polish government to suspend the restitution process.
"For us, this is an issue of justice and not money. We are greatly disturbed by this turn of events as Polish officials have been publicly stating for many years - indeed too many years - that the property restitution and compensation issue would be addressed and legislation introduced in Parliament," Lauder has said.
"By its announcement, Poland is telling many elderly pre-war landowners, including Holocaust survivors, that they have no foreseeable hope of even a small measure of justice for the assets that were seized from them," he added.
"It remains the policy of the World Jewish Congress to obtain restitution of seized and nationalized private property, or the payment of adequate compensation, to dispossessed Holocaust victims and their heirs, both in Poland and elsewhere. We will continue to work together with the elected representatives of the Republic of Poland and pursue diplomatic initiatives to this extent, but we do not advocate a boycott, as is being suggested," Schneider declared.
Last week, amid the controversy around property compensation, Poland accused the United States of not having done enough to save Polish Jews during the Holocaust.
"If the United States wanted to do something for Polish Jews, a good moment was 1943-44, when the majority of them were still alive... Now this intervention is late," Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, whose wife is a Jewish American historian, told Polish public radio.
Sikorski's remarks came after US State Department undersecretary Stuart Eizenstat said Washington was disappointed by Poland's decision to suspend compensation plans for real estate seized from Jews and non-Jews alike by Nazi Germany and the post-war Polish communist regime.