Holocaust allegation by Palestinian president rejected

During a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday in Berlin, Mahmoud Abbas made the assertion. At the moment, Mr. Scholz remained silent, but he later referred to the president's remarks as "intolerable and reprehensible".

The charge made by Mr. Abbas, according to Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, is "not only a moral humiliation, but a disgusting falsehood." He tweeted, "Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, including 1.5 million Jewish children. History won't ever pardon him. The Holocaust is the most horrible atrocity in modern human history, Mr. Abbas repeated in response to the criticism.

In order to gain Germany's support for the Palestinians' application to become a full member state of the UN and to seek it for assistance in resuming the long-shuttered peace negotiations with Israel, Mr. Abbas travelled to Berlin. Reporters questioned the president about his intentions to apologise to Israel and Germany before the 50th anniversary of a fatal attack by Palestinian militants on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics after he met Mr. Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. Instead of directly answering the issue, he said: "If we want to review the history, go ahead."

"Israel has carried out 50 murders, or Holocausts, in Palestinian towns and cities since 1947, including Deir Yassin, Tantura, Kafr Qasim, among many others. And the Israeli military continues to claim casualties today and every day "Added he. While Mr. Abbas was speaking, Mr. Scholz scowled but did not correct him before advisers called a stop to the press session. Before they left, he shook hands with the president as well.

The news conference was "unbelievable," according to Friedrich Merz, the head of Germany's largest opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who also tweeted that Mr. Scholz "should have immediately refuted the Palestinian president in no clear terms and ordered him to leave."

Armin Laschet, a former CDU leader, said: "If the PLO commander had expressed regret for the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, he would have won sympathy. Instead, the most repulsive statement ever heard in the German Chancellery accused Israel of 50 Holocausts."

Dani Dayan, the director of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center, referred to Mr. Abbas's comments as "despicable" and "appalling," and he urged the German government to "react correctly to this unacceptable behaviour done inside the Federal Chancellery." Before Mr. Scholz denounced the president in a statement to Germany's Bild newspaper, several hours had passed.

The chancellor tweeted in English and German on Wednesday morning, "I am disgusted by the reprehensible words made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas." "Any downplaying of the Holocaust's singularity—especially for us Germans—is repugnant and unacceptable. I reject any effort to downplay the Holocaust's atrocities." Later, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Mr. Abbas' office released a statement "stressing that his answer was not intended to reject the singularity of the Holocaust that occurred in the last century, and condemning it in the greatest terms."