Poland and Israel EI Version

"There is no more reliable and loyal adherent of your stance and aspiration for a better and a fairer world order in the European Union than Poland."

- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, 9 April 2008

"We cannot pretend that Iran's behavior is normal and that a terrorist is a freedom fighter. You have a real friend in Europe and it is important that both countries will strengthen each other's image."

- Prime Minister Tusk at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 23 February 2011

"The Jewish people are an indelible part of Polish history, and Poland is an indelible part of Jewish history ... Our deep bilateral cooperation is based on common values and a shared history, as well as on the aspiration to a common future in which we want to achieve the same goals."

- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Tusk, 23 February 2011

Last month witnessed the launch of the first Polish-Israeli governmental forum held in occupied Jerusalem. The biannual dialogue accelerates an existing partnership between the two countries which includes trade agreements, joint military training exercises and arms deals under an ongoing "Polonization of Israeli Technology" drive.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's 55-strong delegation included the ministers of education, health, foreign affairs and defense, as well as senior intelligence, culture, environment and finance ministry representatives. All met their counterparts in the Israeli government.

Both states signed deals for the Israeli military to train Polish special forces as well as pilots of Poland's fleet of 48 Lockheed Martin F-16 war planes. Further agreements included developing joint water and sustainable energy resource management projects; ongoing cultural cooperation with Polish "Year in Israel" events; research and development in health and medicine; Polish lobbying for an upgrade of relations between the EU and Israel; a deal on sharing access to national libraries; and initiatives to be taken between 2011 to 2013 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of the Holocaust in Poland.

Corporate crime

Poland is Israel's freshest market for seeking legitimacy in Europe and one of its most lucrative. Israeli companies violating international law have found a green zone in the Eastern European country.

The firm ASBUD, for example, listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, is majority-owned by Ashtrom, Shikun and Binui Group and STR Development & Construction Group. While having built housing complexes in the neighborhoods of Konstancin, Tarchomin and Piaseczno in Warsaw, Ashtrom also supplies construction materials for checkpoints for the Israeli Ministry of Defense and is building housing units in the illegal settlement of Nof Zion in occupied East Jerusalem (Profile of Ashtom Group, Who Profits from the Occupation?). Meanwhile, Shikun and Binui Group subsidiary Solel Boneh is expanding the illegal colony of Ramot in occupied East Jerusalem (Profile of Housing and Construction Holding Co., Who Profits?).

Egged, Israel's oldest and largest bus company, bought Poland's Mobilis in 2006. Egged Israel is a stakeholder in the Jerusalem light rail project linking illegal settlements to occupied Jerusalem, and also runs bus services between illegal settlements in the West Bank. In Poland, Egged's operations cover urban bus routes in Warsaw, Krakow and Bydgoszcz as well as suburban services, totaling some 240 buses ("Mobilis Sp. z o. o. przjmuje spółki PKS północnego mazowsza," Ostroł ęka 25 June 2010).

Israeli water company Eden Springs Ltd. is the second-largest distributor of bottled water in Poland. Eden's parent company Mayanot Eden sells mineral water from the Salukia spring in the occupied Golan Heights -- Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 -- and also has a bottling plant in Katzrin, an Israeli colony also in the occupied Golan (Profile of Eden Springs, Who Profits?).

Last December, the Polish Ministry of Defense signed a $16 million deal with Israel's Elbit Systems to provide multi-sensor monitoring and surveillance systems for the Polish army ("Elbit Systems Awarded $16M Contract by Polish Military," StreetInsider.com, 20 December 2010). Elbit is responsible for reinforcing Israel's wall in the occupied West Bank (the route of which was declared unlawful by the International Court of Justice in 2004) by providing surveillance systems for it. Elbit also manufactures the Hermes 450 armed drone, a pilotless aircraft that was Israel's weapon of choice during its winter 2008-09 assault on Gaza, when it was used to fire on and kill civilians.