Abbas sparks outrage by accusing Israel of committing “holocaust” against Palestinians

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sparked outrage Tuesday by accusing Israel of having committed a “holocaust” against the Palestinians.

“Israel has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian localities since 1947. 50 massacres, 50 holocausts,” said Abbas, during a press conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Abbas’ remarks came in response to a journalist who asked him if he would apologize to Israel on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the attack perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists against the Israeli team during the 1972 Munich Olympics, which resulted in the death of 10 Israeli athletes and coaches, as well as a German policeman.

Scholz listened to the statements with a look of alarm and annoyance, but did not offer an immediate response, claims the German news agency dpa.

Subsequently, however, Scholz has asserted to the newspaper ‘Bild’ that relativizing this historical fact is unacceptable. “For us Germans in particular, any relativization of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable,” he said.

For their part, German opposition conservatives said Scholz’s handling of the incident was “incomprehensible,” as he should have “clearly and unequivocally contradicted the Palestinian president and asked him to leave.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid has called Abbas’ remarks a “moral disgrace,” after recalling that six million Jews were killed, including 1.5 million children, for which “history will never forgive him.”

“Mahmoud Abbas accusing Israel of having committed ’50 holocausts’ while on German soil is not only a moral disgrace, but a monstrous lie,” he has criticized in a message on his Twitter account.