A far-right politician displayed an Israeli flag bearing a swastika instead of the Star of David on the floor of the Polish parliament on Tuesday, sparking outrage at home and abroad.
Konrad Berkowicz, a member of the Confederation bloc, said he was protesting against Israel’s reported use of white phosphorus munitions in Gaza and Lebanon.
“Israel is the new Third Reich, and its flag should look exactly like Germany’s flag from 1933 to 1945,” the MP wrote on X after the incident. He has previously labeled Israel a “terrorist state” over its wars in the Middle East.
According to TVP, Speaker Wlodzimierz Czarzasty said he would seek to fine Berkowicz for breaking parliamentary rules and notify legal authorities about suspected crimes, including publicly insulting the flag of a foreign state and promoting Nazism.
The Polish Foreign Ministry condemned Berkowicz, saying that criticizing Israel “does not justify such a gesture, which is deeply offensive not only to Jews and Israelis but also to all those for whom the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes constitute an important element of memory and identity.”
In a strongly worded statement, the Israeli Embassy in Warsaw condemned the “antisemitic horror” in the Polish parliament and said that Berkowicz had “desecrated the Israeli flag” on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.
There has been an upswing in antisemitic incidents in Europe and elsewhere since 2023, when Israel launched a military operation in Gaza in response to an attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
In a speech on Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused European states of “deep moral weakness” for not backing the US and Israel in the war with Iran.
Saudi Arabia has pledged $3 billion in financial aid to Pakistan, the South Asian country’s finance minister has said.
Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia has committed $3 billion in additional deposits, with disbursement expected in the coming week. He is currently in Washington attending the World Bank–IMF Spring Meetings 2026.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will head to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for an official visit.
Riyadh’s assistance comes as Islamabad prepares to repay $3.5 billion to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this month.
Earlier this month, Dawn newspaper reported that Abu Dhabi was seeking the immediate repayment of the loan that was provided to Islamabad as part of the external financing support extended by the UAE in 2019.
That aid was extended through the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development to help Islamabad tide over a balance of payments crisis.
The report said the UAE debt was rolled over multiple times, but the most recent extensions had shorter durations, indicating the Emirates’ unease over the arrangement.
In 2024, Pakistan faced a debt crisis in the aftermath of the Covid lockdown, supply disruptions induced by the Ukraine conflict, and extensive floods that battered a third of the country. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had stepped in to provide a 3-year, $7 billion package.
Under its agreement with the IMF, Pakistan is required to secure around $12.5 billion in rollovers from China, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE to meet external financing needs and maintain its currency reserve levels.
The Dawn report indicated that the UAE will be replaced by Qatar.
Pakistan’s ties with the UAE have been strained over the last year. While Islamabad has signed a mutual defense pact with Riyadh, Abu Dhabi has been moving to build a closer security partnership with New Delhi.
The UAE, which has remained a vital source of foreign remittances for Islamabad, also imposed visa restrictions affecting Pakistani nationals earlier this year.
