
Polish MP Sparks Outrage With Swastika Flag in Parliament
It doesn’t get more outrageous than flashing a swastika in parliament on the very day Israelis are commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day — but that’s exactly what Polish MP Konrad Berkowicz did Tuesday.
The antisemitic politician took the floor to unfurl an Israeli flag and display it to his audience. But this was no ordinary flag. The iconic Star of David had been swapped out for a blue swastika.
“Israel is committing genocide before our eyes with particular cruelty,” he told the members of Parliament, repeating the international community’s favorite blood libel.
“Israel is the new Third Reich, and its flag should look exactly like this,” he added as he held up the flag.
Berkowicz also said that Poland should shift its focus from the Russia-Ukraine war — which is against its own self-interest — to focus on Gaza, where he claimed many more children had been killed than in Ukraine. He forgot to mention the inconvenient fact that Russia abducted at least 20,570 Ukrainian children in verified cases — and possibly as many as 300,000. Russia claims it has abducted 700,000 children.
To add insult to injury, the MP repeated the discredited claim that Israel used the “banned” phosphorus bomb. Phosphorus is not banned; it’s legal to use in certain applications, and Israel has said its use of phosphorus complies with international law.
But Sejm (lower house) Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty pushed back hard, standing up immediately to blast Berkowicz with a full-throated repudiation. He said there simply is no justification for the use of Nazi imagery in Parliament.
Undaunted and unrepentant, Berkowicz later posted a video of his despicable act online with the statement, “The world is silent, and Israel is committing genocide before our very eyes with particular cruelty. It is expelling Christians from Lebanon, carrying out ethnic cleansings.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry posted a blistering condemnation on X, calling it “a repulsive act” and saying it condemns it “in the strongest terms.”
“It is hard to imagine a lower depth of contempt towards the Holocaust than this revolting act,” the ministry added, thanking those in parliament who had spoken out against it and urging “every Polish leader to condemn this appalling act in the strongest possible terms.”
As he angrily and proudly displays his altered Israeli flag, Berkowicz would do well to remember Poland’s fine tradition of antisemitism — and where that dark path ended.