Poland’s parliamentary speaker has condemned a Confederation party politician who displayed an Israeli flag featuring a Nazi swastika replacing the Star of David whilst accusing the Jewish state of committing genocide in Gaza, with ruling coalition MPs demanding prosecutors investigate the inflammatory stunt.
Konrad Berkowicz—representing the 16-seat opposition Confederation bloc within Poland’s 460-seat Sejm lower house—pulled out the modified flag during parliamentary rostrum remarks declaring “Israel is the new Third Reich, and its flag should look exactly like this.”
A member of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ruling coalition has called for prosecutorial action against Berkowicz following the incident, which sparked immediate condemnation from the parliamentary speaker presiding over the session.
Official Confederation social media accounts subsequently shared clips of Berkowicz’s speech, with party leader Sławomir Mentzen amplifying the message through his personal account by writing in English: “Israel is the new Third Reich!”
The Confederation MP had preceded unveiling the modified flag by alleging “the number of children who have died [in Gaza] is dozens of times higher than during the entire war in Ukraine,” whilst claiming “the Jews use phosphorus” munitions against civilians causing enormous suffering.
“Israel is committing genocide before our eyes with particular cruelty,” Berkowicz declared before displaying the swastika-emblazoned flag to assembled parliamentarians.
The Confederation party—known for its far-right positioning within Polish politics—holds a relatively minor parliamentary presence with just 16 representatives amongst the Sejm’s 460 members, though its provocative rhetoric frequently generates disproportionate media attention.
The incident arrives amid ongoing international tensions surrounding the Gaza conflict, with various European politicians adopting sharply divergent positions on Israeli military operations whilst Poland itself navigates complex historical relationships with both Jewish communities and Middle Eastern geopolitics.
Berkowicz’s decision amplifying his parliamentary stunt through coordinated social media distribution suggests the provocation represented calculated political messaging rather than spontaneous remarks, with Confederation leadership actively promoting the controversial comparison between contemporary Israel and Nazi Germany.
Polish prosecutors now face pressure from ruling coalition members to examine whether Berkowicz’s actions violated laws prohibiting hate speech or antisemitic incitement, though the parliamentary immunity typically afforded legislators may complicate potential legal proceedings.
The modified flag display represents an escalation of rhetoric comparing Israeli policies to Nazi atrocities—a comparison that Jewish organisations worldwide consistently characterise as antisemitic historical distortion trivialising the Holocaust whilst delegitimising the Jewish state’s existence.
Poland’s own complicated Holocaust history—where millions of Jews perished on Polish soil during Nazi occupation—adds particular sensitivity to any invocation of Nazi symbolism within the nation’s political discourse.
