Israel moves to end rift with Poland amid Ukraine invasion

Israel's top diplomat said on Saturday he ordered the country's ambassador to take up his post in Poland, turning the page on a six-month rift over legislation Israel deemed anti-Semitic.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said the decision was taken to "enhance assistance to Israeli citizens crossing the border from Ukraine to Poland, and in view of the importance of events and the central role Poland is playing in them."

In August, Lapid recalled Israel's charge d'affaires from Warsaw after Poland approved an "immoral, anti-Semitic" law curbing World War II-era property claims, stating that the new ambassador to Poland will remain in Israel "for the time being."

The law set a 30-year time limit on challenges to property confiscations -- many of them relating to Poland's once thriving Jewish community, effectively blocking many possible claims since most confiscations occurred during the postwar Communist era.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine led to a sharp increase in Israeli diplomatic activity in Poland, with the foreign ministry announcing Saturday that the staff of its embassy in Ukraine, already relocated from Kyiv to Lviv, would be spending their nights in Poland. 

In his Saturday remarks, posted on Twitter, Lapid praised the "fruitful" cooperation between Israeli diplomats and Poland and expressed his "thanks to Polish authorities for their assistance."

The new Israeli ambassador, Yaakov Livne, will leave for Warsaw on Sunday morning, and is due to present his credentials "in the near future", Lapid said.