Israel moves embassy from Ukraine to Poland, helps Israelis flee war zone

By World Israel News Staff

Amid the fighting in Ukraine since the Russian attack several days ago, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced Saturday morning that it was moving its embassy in Ukraine to Poland.

“We want to express our thanks to Polish authorities for their assistance,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Dr. Yaakov Livne, the Israeli ambassador, will depart Sunday morning for Warsaw.

“Since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, the Israeli Embassy in Warsaw, headed by charge d’affaires Tal Yaalon, has worked in fruitful cooperation with the Polish authorities in the effort to assist Israelis leaving Ukraine, and we would like to express our gratitude to the Polish authorities for this assistance,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.

Some see this new development as a positive sign regarding Israel’s relationship with Poland, which had deteriorated recently.

In June, the head of the Foreign Ministry’s Political-Strategic Department summoned then-Polish Ambassador to Israel Marek Magierowski to express Jerusalem’s “deep disappointment” with a new law passed that restricts the rights of Holocaust survivors to reclaim property seized by the country’s former communist regime.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called the law “immoral” and “a disgrace,” saying that its passage “would severely damage relations between the two countries.”

In response, Warsaw announced that it would summon Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon, charge d’affaires in the Israeli embassy on Monday, over what they viewed as “intervening in the internal affairs of a foreign state.”

Meanwhile, on Saturday night, the Jewish Agency for Israel on Saturday announced the opening of six aliyah (immigration to Israel) processing stations at Ukrainian border crossings with four countries: Poland, Moldova, Romania and Hungary.

These stations, operated in conjunction with Nativ — an Israeli governmental liaison organization that maintained contact with Jews living in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War — and Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will assist the large number of immigrants fleeing the Ukraine.

The decision to move the embassy to Poland will help Israeli citizens crossing the border from Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry said.