Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has sparked outrage in Germany and Israel with his remarks about the Holocaust. On Tuesday, at a press conference in Berlin attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), the Fatah politician claimed that Israel had perpetrated "50 Holocausts" against Palestinians since 1947. He was responding to a journalist's question about whether he would apologize for the Palestinian terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympic Games.
According to a translation by the German government, Abbas said: “Since 1947, Israel has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian villages and towns, in Deir Yassin, Tantura, Kafr Qassem, and many others—50 massacres, 50 Holocausts. To this day, we have dead people killed by the Israeli army every single day. Our demand is: Stop, enough is enough! Let us please find peace! Let us please look to the future together, for security, for stability!”
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) called it a "monstrous lie" and a "moral disgrace." He emphasized that Abbas had accused Israel of "50 Holocausts" on German soil. "History will never forgive him."
Lapid's predecessor, Deputy Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, sees his stance towards Abbas confirmed by Abbas's statement. During his one-year term until June 2022, he did not meet with Abbas to initiate diplomatic negotiations, despite international pressure. "A 'partner' who denies the Holocaust, prosecutes soldiers at the International Criminal Court, and pays scholarships to terrorists is not a partner."
Lieberman: Abbas more dangerous than Hamas
Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Israel Beiteinu) used even more drastic words: Abbas was a "sworn enemy of the State of Israel." As a "terrorist who practices diplomatic terrorism," he was even more dangerous than the terrorists of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The director of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Dani Dayan, called the words "disgusting." He appealed to the German government to respond "appropriately"; however, he did not specify what he meant by "appropriately.".
The designated Israeli ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, spoke of "shame and disgrace." He also addressed Abbas's doctoral dissertation, written in Moscow in the early 1980s, in which he denied the Holocaust. "Nevertheless, you should understand that reconciliation between people cannot be based on lies and distortions. There must be zero tolerance for Mahmoud Abbas's Holocaust denial on German soil."
With his last sentence, Prosor was possibly referring to Olaf Scholz's reaction. Scholz remained silent after Abbas's remark. Even before the journalist's question, the head of the press conference had announced its end. After Abbas finished speaking, Scholz shook his hand and they both left the press conference area.
Scholz only commented on Abbas's remarks later. He told the "Bild" newspaper: "Especially for us Germans, any relativization of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable." On Wednesday, he tweeted: "I am deeply outraged by the unspeakable statements of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas." He also had the tweet translated into English and Hebrew.
Count Lambsdorff: The public learns what Palestinians are like
Opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) believes Scholz reacted inappropriately at the press conference: "The Chancellor should have clearly and unequivocally contradicted the Palestinian President and asked him to leave the building!" he wrote on Twitter. Former CDU/CSU chancellor candidate and current member of parliament Armin Laschet called it "the worst gaffe ever heard in the Chancellery." As a member of parliament, Laschet is now working to secure a role for Germany in the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab countries.
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, deputy chairman of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag, emphasized a different aspect: "The general public is finally learning what the Palestinians and Abbas – Israel's alleged 'partners' – are really like. That is more important than criticism of the Chancellor, whose outrage was clearly visible." Graf Lambsdorff was also most recently chairman of the German-Israeli Parliamentary Group in the Bundestag.
Several observers noted that the incident at the Chancellery was not mentioned in the evening news reports of the public broadcasters. Neither ZDF nor ARD mentioned the topic in their evening news broadcasts.
Silence in Ramallah
The German mission to the Palestinians has also not yet commented. However, the German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, expressed his displeasure: "Especially for us Germans, any relativization of the singularity of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable. I condemn any attempt to deny the crimes of the Holocaust."
However, this is not the first time Abbas has caused widespread outrage with his statements about the Holocaust. In 2018, he claimed that Jews were complicit. In 2021, the high-ranking Palestinian politician Jibril Rajoub of Abbas's Fatah party said that Israel was perpetrating a "second Holocaust" against the Palestinians.
