Israel condemns Mahmoud Abbas’ Holocaust comparison as ‘reprehensible and unfounded’
Israel’s Leadership has strongly condemned remarks made by the leader of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas – also known as Abu Mazen – accusing Israel of committing 50 “Holocausts” against Palestinians over the years. They called the remarks, which were especially egregious as they were made in Germany, “despicable” and a “moral disgrace.”
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a meeting of the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank city of Ramallah, August 18, 2020. Photo by Flash90.
Mahmoud Abbas made the comments at a joint press conference held in Berlin together with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. They came after the leader of the PA was asked about the upcoming 50th anniversary of the murder of Israeli athletes by Arab terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Abbas seemed annoyed by the question itself. Stuck on the number 50, he went on about Israel having committed 50 “slaughters” against Arabs over the years and 50 “massacres,” and even 50 “holocausts.”
German Chancellor Sholz was visibly uncomfortable with Mahmoud Abbas’ comments but said nothing at the time. He later released a statement condemning the false comparison saying, “Especially for us Germans, any comparison of the Holocaust is unbearable and unacceptable.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid was clearly irate as he stated about the comments, “Mahmoud Abbas accusing Israel of having committed ‘50 Holocausts’ (quotation marks are his) while standing on German soil is not only a moral disgrace, but a monstrous lie.”
Lapid reminded the world that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, including one and a half million Jewish children. But the Prime Minister did not add that his own father was a Holocaust survivor who lost most of his family.
“History will never forgive him (Abbas),” declared Lapid.
Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz was equally enraged.
“Abu Mazen’s words are despicable and false,” he said. “His statement is an attempt to distort and rewrite history.”
“The reprehensible and unfounded comparison between the Holocaust,” added Gantz, “which was carried out by the German Nazis and their enablers in an attempt to exterminate the Jewish people – and the IDF, which ensured the rise of the Jewish people in their homeland, and defends the citizens of Israel and the country’s sovereignty against brutal terrorism – is Holocaust denial.”
Gantz also said that “Those who seek peace are expected to acknowledge the past and not to distort reality and rewrite history.”
“We will continue to learn from history,” he said “including its dark and terrible parts, strive for peace and defend the security and resilience of the Jewish people.”
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also condemned Abbas’ remarks and thanked German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who Bennett called his friend, for publicly repudiating Abu Mazen’s “shocking words.”
“As prime minister, I did not agree to meet Abu Mazen,” Bennett mader sure to stress, “or promote any political negotiations with him, even in the face of domestic and foreign pressures.”
“A ‘partner’ (quotation marks are his) who denies the Holocaust, persecutes our soldiers in The Hague and pays salaries to terrorists – is not a partner,” said Bennett.
Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman called on the Prime Minister and Defense Minister to cut off their contacts with Abbas.
“Abu Mazen is a holocaust denier and sworn enemy of the State of Israel,” he declared.
“Abu Mazen, who yesterday refused to condemn the massacre at the Munich Olympics and the murder of the athletes 50 years ago,” added Liberman, “is a terrorist who engages in political terrorism and is therefore more dangerous than all the terrorist operatives of Hamas or Islamic Jihad.”
He went on to say that Abbas has the most to lose from an end to security cooperation with Israel because, as Liberman sees it, Abbas is only alive thanks to such cooperation. Liberman maintains that Israel has protected Abbas from rival groups that wish him dead.
For his part, Mahmoud Abbas released a statement claiming that he reaffirms that the Holocaust is the “most heinous crime in modern human history.” Abbas said that his answer was not intended to deny the “singularity of the Holocaust” and condemned it in “the strongest terms.”
Abbas, however, conspicuously failed to apologize for his comments or to retract them.
