Poland’s deputy defense minister has resorted to schoolyard insults against Paris, claiming his nation taught the French to “eat with a fork.” It comes after France withdrew Poland’s invite to an event, following a breakdown in Airbus helicopter talks. 
 
 Referring to the Euronaval 2016 event set to take place in Paris next week, Polish Deputy Defense Minister Bartosz Kownacki told TVN24 news channel that “the French side officially invited us a long time ago and now they are showing us the door.” 
 
 “But these are the people we taught to eat with a fork a couple of centuries ago, which may explain their behavior today. This is obvious history, and I invite you to read up on that.” 
 
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 The revoked invitation was delivered to Warsaw via the Polish Embassy in Paris, according to media reports. The cancelation was confirmed to AFP by a source familiar with the matter. 
 
 While there is indeed reason to believe that King Henry III introduced forks to his subjects after discovering them in Poland, where he had previously been elected king, there is no actual evidence to prove that Kownacki’s claim is true. 
 
 Some historians believe the king actually discovered the almighty fork during a stay in Venice after leaving Poland. 
 
 Although Kownacki is clearly angry over the canceled invitation to the Euronaval event, his remarks have been condemned by Poland’s liberal opposition, as well as the spokeswoman of the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, Beata Mazurek, who described the comments as “unfortunate” and “not very diplomatic.” 
 
 “Minister Kownacki is perhaps the first politician to commit diplomatic suicide by fork,” the Polish Polityka weekly said in an article on its website. 
 
 The snub came after Poland halted talks with French aviation company Airbus, which were aimed at the purchase of 50 Caracal helicopters by Warsaw. The suspended talks were met with a furious response from Airbus chief executive Tom Enders, who said his company had never been treated so badly by any government. 
 
 The talks had been backed by Paris, and the cancellation unleashed tension between the two governments, with French President Francois Hollande postponing a visit to the Polish capital. 
 
 READ MORE: New Poland defense minister in hot water over Jewish conspiracy theory 
 
 There is disagreement, however, over which side actually ended the talks. 
 
 The Euronaval 2016 event is supported by the French Ministry of Defense and the French Navy. The five-day naval and maritime defense exhibition is set to include a range of industry-related security technologies, products, and services. It is seen as one of the most important exhibitions of its kind in Europe. 
 
 Diplomacy is not always something Polish defense officials excel at. Earlier this year, Kownacki’s boss, Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz, lashed out at the US saying “people who only built their state in the 18th century are going to tell us what democracy is?” The statement came after the US and the EU criticized Poland over the democratic process relating to the Constitutional Tribunal reform. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Was fork use in Europe pioneered by the Poles? 
 
 Poland "taught the French how to use a fork", a Polish deputy minister has said, amid a continuing row over a cancelled defence contract. 
 
 Deputy Defence Minister Bartosz Kownacki also accused the French of lacking "class" after losing the multi-billion dollar contract to build 50 Airbus Caracal helicopters for Poland. 
 
 A Law and Justice party spokeswoman said the remarks were "unfortunate". 
 
 Poland is to buy US Black Hawks instead. Airbus has threatened to sue. 
 
 Speaking on TV, Mr Kownacki accused France of responding by withdrawing the offer of free accommodation and a car for the Polish delegation at a defence fair in Paris next week. 
 
 "They are a people who learned to eat with a fork from us a few centuries ago. So maybe this is why they are behaving in this way now," he said. 
 
 MPs from the opposition Civic Platform party called for him to be fired. 
 
 A bumpy ride for Poland's Law and Justice party 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Paul Adams examines the political scene in Poland 
 
 "Forkgate" is the latest in a series of controversies Law and Justice has become embroiled in since taking power last November. 
 
 Earlier this month the government retreated from imposing a near-total ban on abortion after massive street protests by women. 
 
 The party has also been criticised by the EU for taking control of state media appointments and for reforms to Poland's constitutional court. 
 
 Read more: Poland returns to conservative roots with Law and Justice win 
 
 The previous Civic Platform-run government had chosen Airbus to supply Poland with helicopters after a tendering process. 
 
 But the Law and Justice party, which took power last November, said the deal was bad for Poland and scrapped it. 
 
 Forks are believed to have spread from the Byzantine Empire to southern Europe in the early part of the Second Millennium and were commonly used in northern Europe by the 1800s. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Poland has long objected to phrases which suggest shared responsibility for Nazi Germany's actions 
 
 Poland's Senate has approved a controversial bill making it illegal to accuse the Polish nation or state of complicity in the Nazi Holocaust. 
 
 The bill, which sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term as punishment, must be signed off by the president before becoming law. 
 
 President Andrzej Duda says Poland has the right "to defend historical truth". 
 
 But it has outraged Israeli MPs, who are now seeking to strengthen their own Holocaust denial laws. 
 
 What does the bill state? 
 
 It says that "whoever accuses, publicly and against the facts, the Polish nation, or the Polish state, of being responsible or complicit in the Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich … shall be subject to a fine or a penalty of imprisonment of up to three years". 
 
 But it adds the caveat that a person "is not committing a crime if he or she commits such an act as part of artistic or scientific activities". 
 
 It passed in a late-night sitting of the upper house of the Polish parliament with 57 votes to 23, with two abstaining. 
 
 The country has long objected to the use of phrases like "Polish death camps", which suggest the Polish state in some way shared responsibility for camps such as Auschwitz. The camps were built and operated by Nazi Germany after it invaded Poland in 1939. 
 
 But the more contentious point raised by the bill is whether it will outlaw references to acts of individual complicity by Poles with the Nazis - something historians say there is clear evidence for. 
 
 What has been the Israeli reaction? 
 
 The Israelis are furious about the bill, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as an attempt to rewrite history and deny the Holocaust. 
 
 There was particular anger as it came just a few days after the Polish president promised to engage in dialogue with Israel about the bill amid the outcry. 
 
 Deputies from across Israel's often fractious political spectrum have united to denounce it. 
 
 Opposition MP Tzipi Livni of the Zionist Union party - normally a staunch critic of Mr Netanyahu - said: "They have spat in Israel's face twice, firstly as the state of the Jewish people that is trying to prevent a second Holocaust, and secondly in the face of an Israeli prime minister who had reached an agreement with his Polish counterpart, and had it ignored." 
 
 Centrist MP Yair Lapin was also defiant, tweeting that the law could not change history. 
 
 Following the passage of the law, Israel's Foreign Ministry asked to postpone the visit of a senior Polish official. 
 
 Pavel Solosh, the head of the Polish National Security Council, will not arrive in Israel on Sunday as was planned. 
 
 Now, Israeli MPs are backing a bill that would expand Israel's existing Holocaust denial laws to include a five-year jail sentence for anyone denying or minimising the role of Nazi collaborators, including Poles, in crimes committed in the Holocaust. 
 
 The amended law would also give legal aid to any Holocaust survivor telling their story who is prosecuted in a foreign country. 
 
 The US state department had also urged the Polish government to rethink the bill. 
 
 What about in Poland? 
 
 Polish politicians have expressed bafflement at the Israeli response. 
 
 "We are very sad and surprised our fight for the truth, for the dignity of Poles, is perceived and interpreted in this way," said Senate speaker Stanislaw Karczewski. 
 
 Deputy Justice Minister Marcin Warchol said it was wrong to suggest the bill would stop people researching Polish history. 
 
 "Poland is a democratic state of law which respects the freedom of public debate, scientific research, and the right to criticism," he said. 
 
 Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Poland was committed to combating lies about the Holocaust. 
 
 "The camps where millions of Jews were murdered were not Polish. This truth needs to be protected," he said. 
 
 Poland is governed by a nationalist party, Law and Justice (PiS), which is keen to show the world how Poland was ruthlessly victimised by its German and Soviet neighbours in the war. 
 
 Media reaction to the law has been much more ambivalent. "Instead of settling the crisis, we have made it even worse," said a columnist in the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita. 
 
 About 100 Polish artists, politicians and journalists have signed an open letter calling for the repeal of the bill, saying it goes too far in trying to make Poland "the only blameless nation in Europe". 
 
 Analysis: It's not a black and white issue 
 
 by Adam Easton, Warsaw correspondent 
 
 "Polish death camps" is a depressingly frequent term in the international media, often as a kind of journalistic shorthand. Even President Obama used it in 2012 during a speech honouring a Polish war hero, Jan Karski. Many Poles believe that the user thinks that Poles created and ran the camps. Of course that's not true. 
 
 Poland's right-wing government, while acknowledging that some Poles blackmailed Jews in hiding to enrich themselves, is keen to promote the history of Poland as a victim, of not just the Nazis, but also the Soviets. 
 
 The government is rightly proud that more Poles are honoured in Israel for saving Jews during the war than citizens of any other nation in occupied Europe. But Polish-Jewish relations during the war were complex - they were neither black nor white. 
 
 Historians say individual Poles denounced their Jewish neighbours to the Germans and also took part in their murder. Critics say this bill may act as a muzzle on people trying to uncover the full complexity of the Holocaust. 
 
 What happened in World War Two? 
 
 Poland was attacked and occupied by Nazi Germany. Millions of its citizens were killed, including three million Polish Jews in the Holocaust. 
 
 Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust overall. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he strongly opposed the bill 
 
 More Poles have been honoured by Israel for saving the lives of Jews during the war than any other nation. 
 
 However, historians say others were complicit by acts such as informing on Jews in hiding for rewards, and participating in Nazi-instigated massacres including in Jedwabne where hundreds of Jews were murdered by their neighbours. 
 
 A historian and well-known "Nazi-hunter" at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Efraim Zuroff, says the number of collaborators runs into "many thousands". 
 
 "The Polish state was not complicit in the Holocaust, but many Poles were," Mr Zuroff told the Times of Israel.
– Note to self: Don't anger Poland's deputy defense minister, or he'll remind you about your country's uncouth eating habits from the 1500s. That was Bartosz Kownacki's reaction after France apparently rescinded Poland's invite to the Euronaval maritime defense fair next week, the Guardian reports. And that disinvite was because Poland apparently backed out of buying 50 Airbus helicopters and decided to buy US Black Hawks instead; France was said to be backing the original Airbus deal, per the BBC. But while the dialogue started to take a turn for the worse regarding the choppers and the negotiations, it's Kownacki's comments on a particular dining utensil that's now causing a commotion. "These are the people we taught to eat with a fork a couple of centuries ago, which may explain their behavior today," Kownacki sniffed to the TVN24 network, via RT.com. "This is obvious history, and I invite you to read up on that." He was referring to the story that King Henry III of France eagerly introduced the fork to the French population after he first came across it in Poland while he was king there. Historians aren't sure if this is how it actually happened, though, noting Henry also may have stumbled across the fork in Venice. Either way, some aren't happy with Kownacki's dining diss, with a member of Poland's Law and Justice Party calling his remarks "unfortunate," while a Polish weekly notes, "Minister Kownacki is perhaps the first politician to commit diplomatic suicide by fork." (A first-grader was suspended for the eating utensil he brought to school.)