The Israeli Foreign Ministry announced that on Monday 20 March, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen is starting an official visit to the UK and Poland. 

The visit to London will focus on strengthening Israeli-British relations, including economic relations and the threat posed by Iran to peace in the Middle East. 

Eli Cohen will then arrive in Warsaw, where he is expected to sign an agreement with Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau which will allow for the return of educational excursions by Israeli youth to Poland. The agreement is being developed based on an agreement reached during a visit by an Israeli delegation headed by MFA Director General Ronan Levy, which took place last Thursday, 16 March in Warsaw. (Read more about the agreement in the article: https://dignitynews.eu/en/educational-tours-of-israeli-youth-to-poland-to-be-resumed/)

Quoted in a communiqué from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Eli Cohen said that his visit to Warsaw leads to “the official resumption of visits by Israeli youth delegations to Poland in places where young people will be able to learn first-hand about the events that took place there more than 80 years ago. “We will work to restore full-scale relations between Israel and Poland and put them on a positive track”, he added.

Talks between Poland and Israel on the resumption of Israeli youth visits to our country had been ongoing for several months. The two countries’ heads of diplomacy first spoke by telephone at the beginning of February, a few days after the death of Shevah Weiss, the former Israeli ambassador to Poland and former chairman of the Knesset.

Minister Eli Cohen reported on Twitter at the time that the conversation concerned “the possible return of Israeli youth groups to Poland, and Polish Minister Rau said he would consider appointing a new ambassador”.

The Polish MFA reported at the time that Polish-Israeli bilateral relations and the global security situation were discussed. It also reported that during the conversation Minister Rau expressed his condolences on the death of Shevah Weiss.

Adrian Andrzejewski