Abbas’ Holocaust statement: Scholz regrets the late reaction

While Chancellor Scholz regrets his late reaction to the Holocaust statement by Palestinian President Abbas, his government spokesman blames himself. Abbas himself tries to put his statement into perspective at least a little.

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has expressed his regret at a joint press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who did not react immediately to his statements on the Holocaust. This was announced by government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit:

At the same time, Hebestreit reiterated his criticism of Abbas’ statement on behalf of the chancellor. Scholz said through his spokesman: “A relativization of the Holocaust with its more than six million dead is completely unacceptable, and doing this on German soil is completely inexcusable.” Scholz expects the Palestinian President to fully recognize the singularity of the Holocaust. The “derailment” cast a “dark shadow” on mutual relationships, according to Hebestreit. Tomorrow Scholz wants to call Israeli Prime Minister Jair Lapid.

Hebestreit looks for mistakes in itself

Hebestreit blamed his own misconduct for Scholz not having had an opportunity to respond to the Palestinian President’s statement. Hebestreit said he was not attentive enough and did not react quickly enough – referring to the end of the press conference he initiated after Abbas’ statement. “That was my mistake and I have to take responsibility for it,” said the government spokesman.

Scholz criticized him directly for this and emphasized that he would have liked to have said something. Hebestreit emphasized that the chancellor then took a stand “very quickly after the press conference” in the press and in the public sphere.

Abbas speaks of “50 Holocausts”

During a press conference with Chancellor Scholz yesterday, Abbas accused Israel of multiple holocausts against the Palestinians. “Israel has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian locations from 1947 to the present day,” he said, adding, “50 massacres, 50 holocausts.”

Government spokesman Hebestreit then ended the press conference. From Scholz, who was outraged ARD correspondent Christian Feld although it was clear to see, there was no immediate response to Abbas’ testimony. Only in the evening did the Chancellor tell the “Bild”: “Especially for us Germans, any relativization of the Holocaust is unbearable and unacceptable.”

The SPD politician made a corresponding statement today on Twitter. He condemned any attempt to “deny the crimes of the Holocaust,” he wrote.

“Too little too late”

The Union denounced the reaction as too late. “An incredible process in the Chancellery,” wrote CDU leader Friedrich Merz on Twitter. The chancellor should have “clearly and unequivocally contradicted” the Palestinian president. CDU MP Matthias Hauer said: “To remain silent after such a lapse is unforgivable.” The deputy CDU federal chairman Karin Prien kept her criticism short and sweet: “Too little, too late,” she tweeted.

SPD faction leader Rolf Mützenich, on the other hand, protected Scholz. “Abbas abused the political arena in Berlin for intolerable and historically absurd attacks on Israel,” he said. The Palestinian President has thus disqualified himself again. “The Federal Chancellor reacted clearly and unequivocally to this and clearly expressed his indignation,” said Mützenich. “To make stupid partisan games out of it now doesn’t do justice to the seriousness of the matter.”

Abbas partially backtracked

Palestinian President Abbas himself has now commented on his Holocaust statements in the Chancellery. “President Abbas reiterates that the Holocaust is the most heinous crime in modern human history,” wrote the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Accordingly, Abbas now emphasized that he did not want to question the uniqueness of the Holocaust in Berlin. Rather, he meant “the crimes and massacres against the Palestinian people that Israel’s armed forces have committed since the Nakba.” These crimes “have not stopped to this day”.

The historical background: In 1948, part of the British Mandate of Palestine became Israel. The Arab neighbors attacked the new state. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were displaced in the fighting that ensued. The Palestinians commemorate this every year as the “Nakba” (catastrophe).

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, around 800,000 of the original 1.4 million Palestinians were expelled from historic Palestine as a result of the “Nakba”. According to various historians, between 10 and 70 massacres of Palestinians were committed during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, including the Deir Yassin and Lydda massacres. More than 100 Arab citizens were probably killed when the village of Deir Yassin was stormed. The number of victims when the city of Lydda, also called Lod, was taken has not been fully clarified to this day. However, historians agree that several hundred Palestinians were killed.

Sharp criticism of Holocaust statement

Despite today’s statement by the Palestinian President, criticism of his statement continues. Former Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned Abbas’ statement “in the strongest possible terms,” ​​said a spokeswoman for her office when asked by “Bild”. The statement was an unacceptable “attempt to relativize the singularity of the crimes committed by Germany during National Socialism – the breach of civilization – the Shoah, or to place the State of Israel directly or indirectly on a par with Germany during the National Socialist era”. Germany will never tolerate such attempts.

The International Auschwitz Committee had previously sharply criticized the Palestinian President’s statements – and at the same time criticized the reaction of the German side. Executive Vice President Christoph Heubner said Abbas “purposefully used the Berlin political arena to defame German culture of remembrance and relations with the State of Israel. With his shameful and inappropriate comparison of the Holocaust, Abbas has once again attempted to promote anti-Israel and anti-Semitic aggression in Germany and to serve Europe.” It is “astonishing and strange that the German side was not prepared for Abbas’ provocations and that his statements on the Holocaust in the press conference went unchallenged.”

Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, also condemned Abbas’ statements “in the strongest terms”. He also said: “I think it’s scandalous that a relativization of the Holocaust, especially in Germany, at a press conference in the Federal Chancellery, goes unchallenged.”

“A Outrageous Lie”

Israeli Prime Minister Lapid clearly rejected the Holocaust accusation. “That Mahmoud Abbas accuses Israel of committing ’50 holocausts’ while standing on German soil is not only a moral disgrace but a blatant lie,” Lapid wrote on Twitter, referring to the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. History will never forgive Abbas.

Lapid is himself the son of a Holocaust survivor.