The Polish response to the WCK incident exposes the dangers of populism

Opinion: Polish athlete Dayman Sobol was killed in the 'World Central Kitchen' incident in Gaza and ever since the reactions in Poland include extreme anti-Israeli rhetoric and antisemitic sentiments on social media
Sever Plozker|
Following the tragic incident in which the IDF accidentally killed seven World Central Kitchen workers in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF launched an investigation. Even though Israel has already admitted its guilt of negligence, likely due to the Gaza quagmire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to apologize for the killing and there is no excuse for such outrageous conduct for a prime minister.
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רכב של ארגון הסיוע הבינלאומי WCK שהותקף ברצועת עזה
רכב של ארגון הסיוע הבינלאומי WCK שהותקף ברצועת עזה
The attacked WCK vehicle in Gaza
(Photo: AFP)
Currently, Poland is grieving over the loss of Polish athlete Dayman Sobol, one of the casualties from the incident. Despite Israel taking responsibility for the incident, Polish citizens from the left, right, and center, are using extreme anti-Israeli rhetoric following the accident. Poland's popular "Gazeta" newspaper devoted an extensive amount of articles to honor Sobol's death.
In some of the pieces, Israel is accused of war crimes, where the IDF's mistake is being compared to the Hamas massacre of October 7. The presumptuous comparison of Hamas' atrocities and crimes against humanity with Israel's operational mistake in which one Polish citizen was killed with six others was not made by any other Western media outlets.
For some reason, we didn't see a public outcry from Poland in response to the kidnapping of Alex Dancyg, a 75-year-old Israeli-Polish historian by Hamas.
Meanwhile, Poland's Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski's condemnation in his conversation with Foreign Minister Israel Katz was balanced, fair, and accurate, similar to many Polish officials and the "World Central Kitchen" organization. However, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk tweeted that the incident is putting Polish solidarity with Israel to a "hard test."
Does Prime Minister Tusk think that someone in the country intended to harm a Polish volunteer of an international food organization to undermine that solidarity, which seems to be conditional? For some reason, we didn't see a public outcry from Poland in response to the kidnapping of Alex Dancyg, a 75-year-old Israeli-Polish historian by Hamas.
On Friday, there was also an official Polish demand for compensation to the family of the killed Polish volunteer. The demands are coming in supposedly since the IDF has yet to publish the findings of the investigation. When politicians are swayed by populist rhetoric, they adopt an extreme stance to appease the masses.
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