A day after accusing Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians, President Mahmoud Abbas walked back on his remarks after they were widely condemned.
A statement released by Abbas’ office on Wednesday reaffirmed that “the Holocaust is the most heinous crime in modern human history.” Condemning the Holocaust in the “strongest terms,” Abbas said his remarks were “not intended to deny the singularity of the Holocaust.”
Abbas has made an unacceptable blunder. He must apologise in Arabic & launch a Holocaust education programme in Palestinian schools, something that Al Quds uni tried. Abbas not only deliberately distorted history but also undermines real Palestinian grievances. I agree with Lapid https://t.co/cc8AOKYnfa
— Ghanem Nuseibeh (@gnuseibeh) August 17, 2022
He clarified that he spoke about “the crimes and massacres committed against the Palestinian people” by Israel since the Nakba, referring to the displacement of millions of Palestinians following Israel’s establishment in 1948.
On Tuesday, during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Abbas declined to comment about a question on his thoughts about the 1972 Munich Olympics attack by Palestinian militants who killed 11 Israeli athletes. When asked whether he planned on apologising to Israel and Germany for the attack ahead of the 50th anniversary, Abbas dodged the question and instead blamed Israel for killing Palestinians.
“I have 50 slaughters that Israel committed in 50 Palestinian villages […] 50 massacres, 50 slaughters, 50 holocausts,” he said.
I am disgusted by the outrageous remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmoud #Abbas. For us Germans in particular, any relativization of the singularity of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable. I condemn any attempt to deny the crimes of the Holocaust.
— Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz (@Bundeskanzler) August 17, 2022
German and Israeli leaders condemned Abbas’ comments. Scholz said any attempt to deny the singularity of the Holocaust is “intolerable and unacceptable”. “I am disgusted by the outrageous remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,” he tweeted. Scholz’s office also summoned the head of the PA’s diplomatic mission in Berlin to protest Abbas’ remarks.
Opposition politicians criticised Scholz for failing to respond immediately to Abbas’ statement. While the Chancellor looked displeased after Abbas made the remarks, he only reacted later. “The chancellor should have contradicted the Palestinian president in no uncertain terms and should have asked him to leave the house!” Christian Democratic party leader Friedrich Merz said.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Abbas’s accusation “is not only a moral disgrace, but a monstrous lie.” He added, “Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, including one and a half million Jewish children. History will never forgive him.”
PA President Mahmoud Abbas's claim that Israel committed “50 Holocausts" is unacceptable.
— Special Envoy Deborah Lipstadt (@StateSEAS) August 17, 2022
Holocaust distortion can have dangerous consequences and fuels antisemitism. https://t.co/Ok7NxQbQba
Defence Minister Benny Gantz, too, described Abbas’ remarks as “despicable and false” and accused him of attempting to “rewrite and distort” history. “The reprehensible and unfounded comparison between the Holocaust—which was carried out by the German Nazis and their enablers in an attempt to exterminate the Jewish people,” he said.
Similarly, the United States’ special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt, tweeted that Abbas’s claim that Israel committed “50 Holocausts” is unacceptable. “Holocaust distortion can have dangerous consequences and fuels antisemitism,” she said.
Imagine what the world would look like if Mahmoud Abbas would put as much energy into promoting peace as he does into Holocaust denial.pic.twitter.com/Mrcn9nofUd
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) August 17, 2022
Abbas has previously been accused of distorting the Holocaust. In 2018, he was forced to apologise after suggesting that the persecution of Jews in Europe was a result of their conduct and not because of their religion. Furthermore, according to reports, Abbas wrote a thesis in 1982 that alleged that the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust was much lower than official figures.
The Holocaust refers to the genocide of millions of Jews by Nazi Germany from the 1930s until 1945. According to several official figures, the Nazis massacred around six million Jews during this period.