17 October 2007
A right-wing Polish political party is running an election campaign advertisement that some suggest is anti-Semitic. The television ad from the ‘League of Polish Families’ indicates that Poland has sent soldiers to Iraq to serve Jewish and American interests, the ‘Associated Press’ news agency reports. Poland is holding general elections next Sunday. The ad shows Polish president Lech Kaczynski meeting with US president George Bush and then at the Western Wall in Jerusalem together with Orthodox Jews. The ad states: "Our allies. They put us in the line of attack." The head of the party, vice prime minister and education minister Roman Giertych, defended the ad, saying it was not anti-Semitic but only critical of the cooperation between Poland and Israel. "One can be against the war in Iraq without being an anti-Semite," Giertych said at a news conference. Jacek Kurski, a member of the governing Law and Justice Party of prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, slammed it as "a pathetic masquerade" that was "seasoned with some anti-Semitism." Poland's ‘Stop the War’ movement, which opposes the country’s military engagement in Iraq, distanced itself from the ad and said it had "strong anti-Semitic connotations."
