Pressure mounts on Poland to back away from Holocaust bill

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland is seeing a resurgence of anti-Semitism over pending legislation that would impose jail terms for suggestions that the nation was complicit in the Holocaust, local minority groups warned, as pressure mounts on the president to veto the bill.

Parliament passed the measure on Thursday, drawing outrage from Israel, U.S. criticism and condemnation from a number of international organisations. President Andrzej Duda has 21 days to decide whether to sign it into law.

The bill would impose prison sentences of up to three years for mentioning the term “Polish death camps” and for suggesting “publicly and against the facts” complicity on the part of the Polish nation or state in Nazi Germany crimes.

More than three million of Poland’s 3.2 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for about half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust. Jews from across Europe were sent to be killed at death camps built and operated by the Germans on Polish soil, including Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor.

According to figures from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Nazis also killed at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians.

In a rare show of unity, Polish minority and ethnic groups, including Jewish, Ukrainian and Russian, urged Duda and other authorities to counteract all forms of xenophobia, intolerance and anti-Semitism, although they did not directly call on the president to veto the bill.

“Our particular concern and objection is caused by the numerous and loud manifestations of anti-Semitism that we have been witnessing this week after the (parliament) passed (the Holocaust bill),” the groups said in statement.

The Israeli embassy in Warsaw also issued a statement on Friday, saying that in the last few days there was “a wave of anti-Semitic statements, reaching the embassy through all channels of communication.”

The area around the embassy in Warsaw has been cordoned off by police since Wednesday to prevent a far-right demonstration. The protest was later cancelled.

“We would like to use this opportunity to repeat that Israel stands with Poland in using the proper term for the death camps – German Nazi camps,” the embassy said in its statement.

Poland is one of the most ethnically and religiously homogenous countries in Europe, but before World War Two Jews made up 10 percent of the population and the country also had large Ukrainian, German, Belarussian and other minorities.

Poland’s ruling party, the socially conservative PiS, has reignited debate on the Holocaust as part of a campaign to fuel patriotism since sweeping into power in 2015.

The party says the bill is needed to protect Poland’s reputation and ensure historians recognise that Poles as well as Jews were victims of the Nazis.

Israeli officials said the legislation criminalises basic historical facts. Critics of the bill have raised concerns it will curb free speech and could potentially be used against Holocaust survivors or historians.

A U.S. congressional task force on combating anti-Semitism and a number of Jewish groups urged Duda to veto the bill.

The International Auschwitz Council, an advisory body to the office of the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said on Friday the bill’s imprecision raised “legitimate concerns about restricting freedom in discovering the truth about the Holocaust”.

Duda has not said whether he would sign the bill, but his spokesman told the Polish state radio Trojka: “The president believes that Poland, as any other country, has the right to defend its good name … has the right to defend the truth”.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chairman of PiS and de facto the country’s leader, told the public radio Jedynka on Saturday that Duda should sign the law,

“He should sign it …,” Kaczynski said. “We must talk to our allies in a way that would allow them to understand that we have no intention of renouncing our dignity.”

Writing by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Stephen Powell/Mark Heinrich

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Belief in the underdog: Four million-dollar bets placed on Eagles in Super Bowl LII

LAS VEGAS — With a day to go before kickoff, four reported million-dollar bets have already been placed on Super Bowl LII — all on the underdog Philadelphia Eagles.

A bettor on Friday at William Hill placed a $1 million money-line bet on the Eagles at 155 odds. If Philadelphia pulls the upset over the New England Patriots, the unnamed bettor would net a $1,550,000 profit.

Earlier in the week, William Hill reported taking a $1.6 million bet on the Eagles 4.5 and another $1 million money-line bet on Philadelphia. Last week, MGM’s sportsbook reported taking a “multimillion” bet on the Eagles.

It’s not uncommon for million-dollar bets to show up each year on the Super Bowl, but not this many. Last year, for example, only one $1 million bet was reported on Super Bowl LI between the Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons.

The Patriots were 4.5-point favorites over the Eagles on Saturday at most sportsbooks. They opened as high as 6-point favorites two weeks ago, but the majority of the early action, especially the largest bets, have been on the Eagles.

On Friday night at Caesars Palace sportsbooks, 61.4 percent of the point-spread bets and nearly 70 percent of the money that had been wagered was on the Eagles. The action was even more lopsided at William Hill, where 85 percent of the money on the point spread was on Philadelphia.

The largest reported bets on the Patriots were in the six-figure range. MGM vice president of race and sports Jay Rood told ESPN that the largest bet he had taken on the Patriots was a “mid-six-figure” money-line bet.

The sportsbook at the South Point casino also reported taking a six-figure bet on the Patriots.

A lot could change leading up to kickoff. Las Vegas bookmakers say as much as 80 percent of the bets will be placed Saturday and Sunday. For right now, though, Las Vegas is rooting for the Patriots.

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