Abbas was asked if he planned to apologise for the Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympics when Palestinian militants killed 11 Israeli athletes and one German police officer. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Palestine president, Mahmoud Abbas, has been condemned for his comments accusing Israel of committing “50 Holocausts”.
The remarks came on Tuesday night during a joint press conference in Berlin with Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
Abbas was answering a German journalist’s question about the Munich massacre 50 years ago.
He was asked if he planned to apologise for the attack by a Palestinian militant group at the 1972 Olympics that killed 11 Israeli athletes and one German police officer.
The Black September militant group was linked to Abbas’s Fatah party at the time.
“If we want to go over the past, go ahead,” Abbas said.
“From 1947 to the present day, Israel has committed 50 massacres in Palestinian villages and cities – in Deir Yassin, Tantura, Kafr Qasim and many others – 50 massacres, 50 Holocausts.
“And until today, and every day, there are casualties killed by the Israeli military.”
The Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, said Abbas’s comments “while standing on German soil is not only a moral disgrace, but a monstrous lie”.
Abbas’s office issued a statement in response to widespread criticism saying “the Holocaust is the most heinous crime in modern human history” and “his answer was not intended to deny the singularity of the Holocaust that occurred in the last century”.
“What is meant by the crimes that President Mahmoud Abbas spoke about are the crimes and massacres committed against the Palestinian people since the Nakba at the hands of the Israeli forces,” the statement also said.
Nakba is the Palestinian term for the displacement of Palestinian Arabs when the State of Israel was established in 1948.
Scholz did not immediately respond to the comments at the press conference and shook Abbas’s hand after the German chancellor’s spokesperson announced the end for questions following Abbas’s answer.
He eventually condemned Abbas’s remarks as did various German politicians, but Scholz was criticised for not doing so during the press conference.
The International Auschwitz Committee (IAC) and the Central Council of Jews in Germany were among groups that criticised Scholz.
Scholz had criticised the Palestinian leader earlier for saying Israel is perpetuating an “apartheid system”.
His denouncement of the Holocaust comparison came the following morning from his official Twitter account.
“I am disgusted by the outrageous remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas”, Scholz said.
“For us Germans in particular, any relativisation of the singularity of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable. I condemn any attempt to deny the crimes of the Holocaust.”
