Outrage Over Abbas’s Antisemitic Speech On Jews And Holocaust

German and Israeli officials have denounced Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for remarks he made regarding Jews and the Holocaust during a speech.

Mr Abbas claimed that Adolf Hitler ordered the mass slaughter of Jews because of their “social role” as moneylenders, not because of antisemitism.

He was accused of “pure antisemitism” by Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations.

“History is clear,” stated Germany’s Ramallah embassy. “Millions of lives were erased – this cannot be relativized.”

“We strive to promote a dignified and accurate memory of the victims.”

Steffen Seibert, Germany’s ambassador to Israel, added, “The Palestinians deserve to hear the historical truth from their leader, not such distortions.”

Hitler made the Jewish people the blame for Germany’s problems. He also saw them as a deplorable race that ought to be eradicated.

The Palestinian president, 87, has already been labeled a Holocaust denier by Jewish organizations for his doctoral thesis on the Nazis and Zionism.

German and Israeli officials have denounced Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for remarks he made regarding Jews and the Holocaust during a speech.

Nonetheless, he has continued to make extended, rambling speeches expounding his inflammatory beliefs.

His speech to the Fatah Revolutionary Council last month was broadcast on Palestine TV. On Wednesday, the Middle East Media Research Institute translated and promoted his statements. BBC News has confirmed the translation.

“They say Hitler killed Jews because they were Jews, and Europe hated Jews because they were Jews.” No. “They fought them because of their social role, not because of their religion,” Mr Abbas adds at one point.

Later, he clarifies that he was alluding to Jews’ role in “usury, money, and so on.”

Mr. Abbas also revived a long-dormant historical claim that European Ashkenazi Jews were descended from Khazars, a nomadic Turkic group, who converted to Judaism in the eighth century.

“The truth we must spread throughout the world is that European Jews are not Semites.” “It has nothing to do with Semitism,” he explained. “As for the Eastern Jews, they are Semites,” he said, referring to Sephardic Jews from the Middle East.

The president previously sparked international outrage by making similar recommendations in 2018, during what he described as “a history lesson” during a rare meeting of the Palestinian National Council.

In such instances, his goal is to doubt the Jewish people’s relationship to modern-day Israel. Land rights are at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and are intertwined with both peoples’ historical histories.

The content of the president’s most recent speech was released by the Israeli foreign ministry on X, formerly known as Twitter, and condemned by Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan.

“This is the true face of Palestinian ‘leadership,'” added the envoy. “Just as Abbas blames Jews for the Holocaust, he blames Jews for all of the Middle East’s problems.”

German and Israeli officials have denounced Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for remarks he made regarding Jews and the Holocaust during a speech.

“The world must wake up and hold Abbas and the Palestinian Authority accountable for the hatred they spew and the bloodshed that results.” Palestinian incitement and terror must be met with zero tolerance!”

The European Union also slammed the address, calling it “false and grossly misleading.”

“Such historical distortions are inflammatory, deeply offensive, and can only serve to exacerbate tensions in the region and serve no one’s interests,” it said in a statement. They help those who oppose a two-state solution, which President Abbas has frequently pushed for.”

“Moreover, they trivialise [the] Holocaust, thereby fueling antisemitism, and are an insult to the millions of Holocaust victims and their families.”

Mr. Abbas was chastised in May for comparing Israel to Nazi Germany during an address at a UN summit. He accused the country of lying “just like Goebbels,” referring to the Nazi party’s top propagandist, Joseph Goebbels.

During a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin last year, he said Israel had committed “50 massacres; 50 holocausts.” This sparked an international uproar. The chancellor later stated that he was “disgusted by the outrageous remarks,” and Israel and the United States issued strong declarations in response.

The Palestinian leader then issued a correction via Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency. He did not expressly apologize but stated that the Holocaust was “the most heinous crime in modern human history” and that his remarks were not intended to “deny the singularity of the Holocaust.”

SOURCE – (BBC)