The Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland posted a statement on Sunday asserting that President Andrzej Duda strongly condemns the anti-Semitic slogans that appeared during the Warsaw march against Israeli intervention in the Gaza Strip.

“We Poles, for the sake of the memory of those who were murdered during the Holocaust, can never tolerate any manifestation of anti-Semitism in any form and any sign of it arouses our deep indignation. In Poland, expressing hatred towards anyone is not acceptable. It is completely contrary to the values on which the Republic of Poland is based,” the President’s office’s Twitter post reads.

On Saturday, a march passed through the streets of Warsaw in protest against the Israeli intervention in the Gaza Strip. The demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and banners with the slogans: “Stop the genocide of the Palestinians”, “Free Palestine”, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, “What is happening in Palestine is genocide and mass destruction, and we are eyewitnesses to it live”.

One participant carried a banner with the words ‘keep the world clean’ and a drawn rubbish bin with the Israeli flag inside. The banner was commented on Saturday by the Israeli ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne.

“Warsaw Today. Polish authorities have an obligation to prevent manifestations of such open anti-Semitism”, he wrote on Twitter. In a post published on Sunday, he thanked the Polish president for his statement.

According to media findings, the banner was held by a student at Warsaw Medical University. The university posted a statement on social media on Sunday.

“We unequivocally condemn all manifestations of hatred, including those based on nationality and racial grounds. The incident took place outside the Warsaw Medical University. The University authorities have taken the appropriate steps provided by law”, reads the statement.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński