Poland: details not finalized for resumption of Israeli high school trips

An agreement to resume high school trips to Poland has yet to be finalized, although progress has been made on the issue, the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

“Although a final agreement has not been reached yet, during talks held in recent days through diplomatic channels we have been observing a convergence of positions,” the Polish Foreign Ministry said.

This has given “hope that a comprehensive agreement on the visits of organized groups of Israeli youth to Poland can be signed between Poland and Israel in the near future,” it added.

The Polish Foreign Ministry spoke out after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it had reached an agreement with Poland that would allow the high school students to visit the former concentrations as part of an organized school trip designed to help them better understand the Holocaust.

A sign of thawing ties between Israel and Poland

The trips were suspended last year due a dispute between Israel and Poland with respect to the curriculum and the presence of armed security guards.

On Wednesday the Polish Foreign Ministry said that “negotiations on the issue of the return of trips of organized groups of Israeli youth to Poland have been held with the Israeli side since the beginning of last year. 

“We continue to work together on arrangements, with the aim of reaching a solution that is satisfactory to both sides. The resumption of visits by organized groups of Israeli youth to Poland was, among other things, the subject of conversations between the Ministers of Education and Foreign Ministers of Poland and Israel held on 31 January and 7 February 2023, respectively,” the ministry said.

“Poland invariably remains ready to welcome and host Israeli citizens in our country, traveling individually and in organized groups, based on existing agreements between our countries concerning i.a. (inter alia) visa-free travel,” it added.