ISRAEL VOICES DISMAY

Barbed-wire fences are pictured at the Auschwitz concentration camp
in Oswiecim, Poland, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

POLISH SENATE DECISION

Israel voices dismay over Polish Holocaust bill.

JERUSALEM : Israel expressed dismay on Thursday after the Polish Senate passed a controversial bill on the Holocaust, perceived by the Jewish state as enabling a distortion of history.

The bill sets fines or maximum three-year jail  terms for anyone who refers to Nazi German death camps as Polish or accuses Polish of complicity in the Third Reich's crimes.

The legislation has been approved by the Polish lower parliament on Friday, sparking vocal protests in Israel, which said it could serve to deny Polish involvement in Nazi Germany's extermination of Jews.

Israel set up a team to conduct a dialogue with the Polish government in hope of amending or delaying bill, but the Polish upper house approved it early on Thursday.

Polish President Andrzej Duda now has 21 days to sign it into law.

The Israel foreign ministry said it ''categorically opposes the Polish senate decision.''

''Israel views with utmost gravity any attempt to challenge historical truth. No law will change the facts,'' ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said.