Konrad Berkowicz labeled Israel “the new Third Reich” over its airstrikes on Gaza and Lebanon
A far-right politician displayed an Israeli flag bearing a swastika instead of the Star of David on the floor of the Polish parliament on Tuesday, sparking outrage at home and abroad.
Konrad Berkowicz, a member of the Confederation bloc, said he was protesting against Israel’s reported use of white phosphorus munitions in Gaza and Lebanon. “Israel is the new Third Reich, and its flag should look exactly like Germany’s flag from 1933 to 1945,” the MP wrote on X after the incident. He previously labeled Israel a “terrorist state” over its wars in the Middle East.
According to TVP, Speaker Wlodzimierz Czarzasty said he would seek to fine Berkowicz for breaking parliamentary rules and notify legal authorities about suspected crimes, including publicly insulting the flag of a foreign state and promoting Nazism.
Izrael to nowa Trzecia Rzesza i jego flaga powinna wyglądać dokładnie tak. ???????? pic.twitter.com/U39xIYrp08
The Polish Foreign Ministry condemned Berkowicz, saying that criticizing Israel “does not justify such a gesture, which is deeply offensive not only to Jews and Israelis but also to all those for whom the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes constitute an important element of memory and identity.”
In a strongly worded statement, the Israeli Embassy in Warsaw condemned the “antisemitic horror” in the Polish parliament and said that Berkowicz had “desecrated the Israeli flag” on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.
There has been an upswing in antisemitic incidents in Europe and elsewhere since 2023, when Israel launched a military operation in Gaza in response to an attack by Hamas.
In a speech on Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused European states of “deep moral weakness” for not backing the US and Israel in the war with Iran.