Draft Federation Letter to Israeli Ambassador on Damian Sobol

 

To Ambassador Jakov Livne,

Israeli Embassy

Ul. Ludwika Krzywickiego 24,

02-078 Warszawa,

Poland

Thursday, 4th April 2024

Dear Mr Ambassador,

The Polish community in the UK was horrified by the massacre of Israeli citizens on October 7th by

Hamas terrorists last year, and has always believed in the right of the state of Israel to exist and

to defend itself.

However, that outrage cannot justify in any way the deliberate targeting and killing this week in

three separate vehicles of 7 foreign aid workers from the charity organization World Central

Kitchen. In particular, the Polish community was shocked that one of the innocent victims of these

three separate attacks was an experienced Polish aid worker Damian Soból, who had previously

worked as a volunteer aid worker in Ukraine and Turkey, and equally shocked at the news

of British victims of this attack, John Chapman, James Henderson, and James Kirby. Their only

motivation for their presence in Gaza was to help the victims of famine and disaster. Even though

the Israeli Prime Minister has admitted that the Israeli Defence Force caused these attacks,

neither he, nor the Israeli Ambassador in Poland, have apologized fully for these deaths, and the

latter has caused further outrage to the people of Poland and to the Polish community in the UK

by using this incident as an opportunity to enter a polemic about alleged antisemitism in Poland.

We believe that the Israeli government should issue a public apology for this incident, as well as

conduct a full investigation to establish who was personally responsible for this decision, while the

families of these 7 victims should be fully compensated by the Israeli government.

We further believe that the possibility of further such deaths of innocent victims can only be

prevented by the government of Israel responding positively to calls from Israel’s friends and

allies for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Gaza.

Yours faithfully,

Alicja Donimirska

Chair of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain

cc to Israeli Ambassador in London