The 22-year-old, considered one of the biggest pop stars in Israel today, faced backlash in Poland last week, by referring to the Holocaust after she secured a third-place finish at the Eurovision Song Contest, in part thanks to a maximum 12 points awarded to her by a judging panel in Warsaw.
“When Poland gives Israel 12 points, after almost the entire Kirel family was murdered in the Holocaust, it is a victory,” Kirel told Israeli news outlets immediately after the competition, according to the timesofisrael.com website.
Her comment sparked controversy in Poland and saw the authorities in Warsaw invite the singer for a tour of the country "to understand why she thinks about our homeland in this way and to explain why (her comments) are painful to us."
Now, the singer shared her perspective during an interview with the Israeli-based i24News outlet.
“When they [Poland] awarded me the 12 points, I said it was a victory for me because what happened to my family during the Holocaust happened on Polish soil. I meant that it happened on Polish soil. Things are kind of taken out of context," Kirel said, as quoted by the i24news.tv/en website on Tuesday.
Her initial comment hot on the heels of her Eurovision performance had been met with outrage in Poland, one of the worst victims of Nazi Germany.
“The fact that many people in Israel consider Poland to be a co-perpetrator of German crimes – not their victim – is often the result not so much of bad will as lack of knowledge and incomplete education,” Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński wrote on Twitter.
He added that Kirel should come and “see with her own eyes the places where Nazi Germany committed cruel crimes against Poles and Jews in our country."
In response to the invitation, Kirel told i24News: "I'm sure I'll meet with the Polish foreign minister, we'll talk and he'll understand the situation.”
The singer added that she shoots "a lot of music videos in Poland," including the video for the Eurovision song "Unicorn.”
“I will continue to tour in Poland and I'm sure everything will be fine," she was quoted as saying by the website.
Poland and Israel have engaged in heated debates about the Holocaust over the years, with senior Polish officials blaming the country for taking part in spreading a distorted narrative about Poland's wartime history and Israeli officials accusing Warsaw of anti-Semitism.
Six million Jews, including nearly all of Poland’s roughly 3 million Jews, were killed by the German Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust, and major Nazi death camps were in Poland.
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Source: i24News
