Kaminski caught lying on Jewish apology?
10:08 am - August 11th 2009
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Did Polish MEP Michal Kaminski, from Poland’s Law and Justice party, lie about charges of anti-semitism?
The Tories have been trying to push back at accusations against him, made recently in the New Statesman by James Macintyre.
That lead to a war of words between Tory MEP Dan Hannan and Macintyre, detailed here.
Michal Kaminski is a key member of David Cameron’s new grouping in the European parliament and is an important ally. In his support Stephen Pollard recently wrote in the Daily Telegraph:
A further accusation is that, in an interview, he [Kaminski] said that he would apologise [for the Jedwabne massacre] only if someone “from the Jewish side” apologised for what “the Jews” did during the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland from 1939 to 1941. Mr Kaminski flatly denies this, and no one has produced a shred of evidence to contradict him.
But Toby Helm at the Observer chased up this claim and writes on his blog:
Kaminski does indeed deny this. But perhaps he should stop denying it. Here is the evidence. In 2001 Kaminski gave an interview to the Polish weekly paper Nasza Polska. Three weeks ago he flatly denied to the Observer that he ever gave the interview. In fact he said he had never spoken to a journalist from this paper, which often carries – how can one say it – pieces that would not always delight Jewish people. So the Observer emailed the editor of Nasza Polska, Piotr Jakucki, to see what he had to say.
A few days later, Jakucki replied, confirming that “Kaja Bogomilska made an interview with deputy Michal Kaminski in person”, making him aware she was from Nasza Polska.
The issue is no longer just about charges of anti-semitism, says Helm, but “about honesty and judgment. Kaminski’s honesty and Cameron’s judgment.”
Will Kaminski own up? Will Tories stop defending him and crying ‘smear’? We’ll have to wait and see.
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Chris is a regular contributor to Liberal Conspiracy. He is an aspiring journalist and reports stories for LC.
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Reader comments
So where’s the archive?
It’s alarming that the Tories have put themselves in a position of having to defend an extreme right-wing party, they should choose their allies a lot better.
And in fact, the text of Ms Bogomilska’s 2001 interview with Kaminski is here. Only took a few seconds on Google to catch him out.
Splintered Sunrise – I would be up for see a better translation of this than Google can before I made a summary judgement but he sounds rather more reasonable than say, Ben White sometimes does, in this:
“No one decent does not take part in smoking Jews [I am assuming that not is redundant there]. These were people margin. To this day we have in Poland, bandits, murderers. They are in every other country. Also in Israel. If someone asks me whether I am ashamed for that handful-answer: yes, I am ashamed. Exactly in the same manner in which I am ashamed to be a mother who knowingly guided his son murderers.”
And he may be a bit confused on the history but it is undeniable that plenty of jews were intimately involved in the establishment and running of the Soviet Union, an incredibly successful engine of death and enslavement, which I can imagine being a sore point for Poles today.
“It’s alarming that the Tories have put themselves in a position of having to defend an extreme right-wing party, they should choose their allies a lot better.”
So it’s nothing to do with left wing commentators trying to sling every accusation under the sun at Kaminski in order to halt the ECR before it gets started? So far, he has been an anti-Semetic, homophobic far right-wing loony on the fringes of the European Parliament, and more recently he’s been accused of being too pro-European.
It’s more funny that the left can’t let this one go. They must keep slinging until something sticks.
Mark M:
Nah, it’s to do with the Tories buddying up with a far-right party.
Cool.
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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Liberal Conspiracy
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Paranormal Guru
Liberal Conspiracy » Kaminski caught lying on Jewish apology?: About the author: Chris is a regular contributor .. http://bit.ly/1prK2e
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Liberal Conspiracy
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Paranormal Guru
Liberal Conspiracy » Kaminski caught lying on Jewish apology?: About the author: Chris is a regular contributor .. http://bit.ly/1prK2e
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The Tory showdown in Europe for the continues « Raincoat Optimism
[…] character is of great interest. He is now unable to deny calls of anti-semitism against him despite the best efforts of right-wing Tories such as Dan Hannan who has also been known to stick […]
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Tom Miller
More on Kaminsky http://bit.ly/31eHwV
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