Embassy of Poland, Tel Aviv

The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tel Aviv is located at 16 Soutine Street, Tel Aviv 6468408, Israel.[1] Its general telephone number is +972 3 725 3111 and fax number is +972 3 523 7806, with the general secretariat reachable at telaviv.amb.sekretariat@msz.gov.pl.[1]

The embassy includes a Consular Section at the same address. Consular staff maintain telephone contact hours of Monday through Friday from 08:00 to 16:00, with visitor service hours from Monday through Friday, 08:30 to 15:00; the consular e-mail address is telaviv.consul@msz.gov.pl.[1] For emergencies involving Polish citizens facing threats to life, health, or freedom, the embassy maintains a separate emergency line at +972 547 444 106 and a dedicated emergency e-mail address.[1]

As listed by Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the mission's organizational structure encompasses a political-economic section, a communications and public diplomacy section, an administrative and financial section, a Consular and Polish Diaspora Section, an Office of the Military Attaché, a Foreign Trade Office of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency, and a Polish Tourist Organisation Office in Tel Aviv.[8] The embassy maintains social-media accounts on Twitter and Instagram under the handle @PLinIsrael, as well as a Facebook page identified as Polish Embassy Tel-Aviv.[1] The Polish mission's location in Tel Aviv is consistent with the pattern described for European embassies in Israel.[9]

Poland established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1948 after being among the first countries to recognize the newly declared state.[3] Relations were severed in 1967 following the Six-Day War; Poland's official bilateral-relations page attributes the decision to Soviet influence and support for the Arab states.[3] The break left Israeli-Polish ties in suspension for nearly two decades, with contacts reduced to indirect and largely covert channels.

The path toward restoration began during the 1980s. By autumn 1986, Poland and Israel had agreed to restore limited diplomatic ties and renew cultural, tourism, and other links.[2] In 1986, Poland became the first Communist-bloc country to reopen low-level diplomatic relations with Israel.[10] Interest sections dealing with visa regulations and cultural and economic ties were established in Warsaw and Tel Aviv.[10] The Polish team operating in Tel Aviv at that time worked from the PKO Bank on Allenby Street, and its senior representatives held only the diplomatic rank of "second secretary" — a deliberately modest level preceding the formal restoration of full relations.[2]

A Library of Congress country study, completed in 1988, described the September 1986 step as the reestablishment of diplomatic relations during a period when improving Israeli-Soviet relations encouraged expanded ties between Israel and Eastern European states.[11] The same study recorded that in January 1987 an Israeli delegation negotiated with Polish, Bulgarian, and Hungarian representatives on agricultural cooperation, an early sign of the practical relationship taking shape.[11]

Full diplomatic relations were formally restored on 27 February 1990.[12][3] A joint publication documenting an earlier era, titled Documents on Israeli-Polish Relations, 1945–1967, was published in Jerusalem in 2009 by the Israel State Archives and the Head Office of the State Archives of Poland.[13] A 2017 study describes the subsequent relationship as developing across political, economic, and military fields, including bilateral intergovernmental consultations held in Israel in November 2016.[14]

One of the most consequential functions of the embassy since the early 2000s has been administering Polish citizenship applications for Israelis of Polish descent. After Poland joined the European Union in May 2004, a Polish passport became in practical terms an EU passport, and thousands of Israelis with Polish-ancestry claims began approaching the embassy in Tel Aviv seeking assistance.[15]

A 2007 report described the process in detail: applicants opening a case through the embassy were told to expect approximately three to four months before receiving confirmation that processing had begun, followed by ten months to one year for an eligibility determination, with complex cases potentially taking as long as two and a half years.[15] The application process requires Polish translations and notarization of documents, completion of extensive Polish-government forms, submission of a résumé, and documentation of military service or non-service in the Israel Defense Forces.[15]

The scale of demand grew substantially over the following years. A 2011 report stated that the embassy was issuing passports to Israelis at a rate of approximately 2,000 per year, and that Poland had issued 12,800 passports to Israelis from the Warsaw consular district alone since 2004.[16] By 2012, more than 10,000 Israelis had applied for and received Polish citizenship through family connections, with approximately 20,000 Israelis holding Polish citizenship overall — half of whom had acquired it after EU accession.[17]

Data published by the Polish Embassy in Israel in August 2018 indicated that 10,820 Israelis became Polish citizens between 2015 and 2017 alone, and that more than 20,000 Israelis obtained Polish citizenship between 2010 and 2017, with more than 3,000 receiving Polish passports in 2015.[4]

The embassy has represented Poland's commercial and economic interests in Israel through both diplomatic staff and dedicated trade-promotion offices. In 2011, economic and technology discussions were held at the embassy with Polish Ambassador Agnieszka Magdziak-Miszewska, Asseco Poland president Adam Goral, and Israeli technology executive Moti Gutman. The occasion concerned Asseco's investment in Israeli software-services company Formula Systems; Goral described Israel as a bridge to the American market.[18]

The embassy's economic counselor, Krzysztof Bartosz, actively promoted Israel-Poland business ties, discussing Israeli investment in Poland, Poland's skilled workforce, and bilateral cooperation in technology and biomedical industries. At the time of those discussions, bilateral trade stood at approximately $860 million annually.[19]

In 2016, the Polish government-sponsored Lublin Science and Technology Park announced plans to open a Tel Aviv branch to help Israeli start-ups partner with Polish technology and biomedical firms. The initiative was announced at a Polish-Israeli biomedical conference and was initially budgeted at NIS 500,000, approximately $127,000.[19]

The embassy has undertaken a sustained program of cultural diplomacy connecting Polish and Israeli institutions and publics.

In October 2020, to mark the 30th anniversary of the reestablishment of diplomatic relations, the embassy and the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv — cooperating with Jagiellonian University and other Polish and Israeli institutions — organized a virtual conference. The embassy also launched the PolandIsrael online networking application, designed to connect individuals and institutions working on Polish-Israeli projects and to provide project matching, organizational pages, materials, news, and recommendations.[5]

In early September 2020, the Polish Embassy in Israel published a Hebrew-language e-book on the activities of Polish diplomats during World War II, particularly their efforts to rescue Jews. The publication was made available on the embassy's website and contained 24 narratives, including accounts of forged passports produced by Polish diplomats in Bern and diplomatic interventions at the outbreak of the war.[4]

The embassy organized the Guardians of Memory photographic exhibition — produced with partners from Poland — to document efforts to renovate and protect Jewish cemeteries in Poland and to highlight the volunteers involved in preserving Jewish heritage. The exhibition toured multiple venues: Hebrew University in Jerusalem in May 2024, the Mashmaut Center in Kiryat Motzkin in June 2024, Beit Shalom Aleichem in Tel Aviv in November 2024, and the Cultural Center of the Ramat HaSharon Municipality in December 2024.[20]

On 6 May 2025, the embassy and the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv hosted an evening at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium and Culture Center in Tel Aviv commemorating the adoption of Poland's Constitution of 3 May and Polish Armed Forces Day. The event included remarks by Ambassador Maciej Hunia, attendance by Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch and diplomatic, educational, artistic, and cultural representatives, and a performance of jazz interpretations of Chopin by Israeli pianist and composer Guy Mintus with Oren Hardy and Yonatan Rosen.[21]

On 25 November 2024, the embassy hosted a reception in Tel Aviv marking the 106th anniversary of Poland's restoration of sovereignty in 1918. Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch served as the event's guest of honor, and the program highlighted Polish-Israeli relations and shared values including education and preservation of history and culture.[22]

The embassy has also been involved in bilateral educational arrangements related to Israeli student trips to Poland. These trips bring Israeli teenagers to former German concentration and death camps for Holocaust education, and their curriculum, security arrangements, and the participation of Israeli armed guards have all become subjects of bilateral negotiations and diplomatic discussion.[6]

The Polish Embassy in Tel Aviv joined the Israel Council on Foreign Relations in holding a seminar examining the case of Witold Hulanicki, a Polish Consul General in Jerusalem who was abducted and assassinated in February 1948. The event examined competing historical interpretations of the killing. Hulanicki's daughter, Barbara Hulanicki, participated in the seminar and took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at her father's grave during her first visit to her Jerusalem childhood home in 63 years.[23]

The embassy's history has been punctuated by serious diplomatic crises rooted in disputes over Holocaust memory, property restitution, and the characterization of Polish conduct during and after World War II.

In 2018, shortly after Poland enacted legislation prohibiting attribution of responsibility for the Holocaust to the Polish nation, swastikas and anti-Polish graffiti were painted on the embassy's gate and building.[24] In 2019, the embassy commissioned a public-opinion survey that found one in two Israelis held a negative opinion of Poland, while a large majority believed that Poles had also suffered under the Nazis. The survey was conducted during a period of acute disagreement between Israel and Poland over Holocaust memory, Polish responsibility, and property restitution.[25]

On 15 May 2019, Polish Ambassador Marek Magierowski was verbally assaulted and spat upon by a 65-year-old man near the embassy. Israeli police detained the assailant, and Magierowski was not physically harmed.[26] The incident occurred against a backdrop of disputes over Polish Holocaust legislation, property restitution, and accusations concerning Polish complicity in the Holocaust.[24]

The most consequential rupture came in 2021, when Poland recalled Ambassador Magierowski after Israel and Poland clashed over Polish legislation limiting legal challenges to postwar property confiscations — legislation with direct implications for Holocaust survivors and their heirs seeking restitution of property seized during and after the Nazi occupation.[27] Poland stated that Magierowski would remain in Poland until further notice and that another embassy employee would temporarily manage the mission in Tel Aviv.[27] A separate account reported that Israel had effectively expelled Magierowski and that he was subsequently appointed Poland's ambassador to the United States; Polish authorities linked the absence of a full ambassador in Tel Aviv to reciprocal restrictions on the seniority of Israeli diplomatic contacts in Warsaw.[28]

By February 2023, Poland had formally downgraded its diplomatic mission and had been without an ambassador in Tel Aviv for approximately two years. Israeli and Polish foreign ministers held discussions on restoring ambassadorial representation and resuming Israeli youth delegations to Poland for Holocaust education.[6] In September 2024, the embassy was officially represented by Agata Czaplinska as chargée d'affaires, with Maciej Hunia designated as ambassador but not yet resident in Israel.[29]

In October 2024, Maciej Hunia arrived in Israel and began serving as Poland's new ambassador, ending an ambassadorial absence of approximately three years and two months.[7] His assumption of duties was complicated by the fact that Polish President Andrzej Duda had not signed his credentials amid a political dispute within Poland, meaning Hunia could function as ambassador but could not yet formally present credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog.[7] The embassy announced Hunia's arrival through its social-media accounts, and Israel's ambassador to Poland, Yaakov Livne, publicly welcomed him.[7]