Holocaust statement in the chancellery: criticism of Abbas – and of Scholz

The Holocaust comparison by Palestinian President Abbas caused outrage among German parties and in Israel. The criticism is also directed at Chancellor Scholz – and his silence at the wrong moment.

After comparing Israel’s actions against Palestinians to the Holocaust, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has come under increasing criticism. But critical tones are also increasing towards Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The new German ambassador to Israel and former government spokesman Steffen Seibert limited his criticism to Abbas in a tweet. His statement at a press conference in Berlin was “wrong and unacceptable,” wrote Seibert in a tweet. “Germany will never tolerate any attempt to deny the uniqueness of the crimes of the Holocaust,” said the new ambassador.

From the point of view of the Federal Government’s Anti-Semitism Commissioner, Felix Klein, the Palestinian President’s statement “lacked any sensitivity towards us German hosts”. Abbas “is doing no service to legitimate Palestinian concerns,” Klein continued.

Press conference ended after Abbas’ statement

After talks with Chancellor Scholz, Abbas made the following statement at the subsequent press conference: “Since 1947 to the present day, Israel has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian locations.” And Abbas added: “50 massacres, 50 holocausts.”

Today’s government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit then ended the press conference. From Scholz, who was outraged ARD correspondent Christian Feld Although it was clear to see, there were no direct objections to Abbas’ statement.

Union denounces the Chancellor’s lack of reaction

And that’s exactly why the chancellor is increasingly being criticized. “An incredible process in the Chancellery,” wrote CDU leader Friedrich Merz on Twitter. The chancellor should have “clearly and unequivocally contradicted” the Palestinian president.

The CDU MP Matthias Hauer made a similar statement: “To remain silent after such a lapse is unforgivable.” The deputy federal chairman of the CDU, Karin Prien, kept her criticism short and sweet: “Too little, too late,” she wrote, referring to Scholz, also via tweet.

FDP parliamentary group deputy Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, on the other hand, stood in front of the Chancellor, after all, his outrage was “clearly visible”.

“Relativity intolerable and unacceptable”

In a conversation with “Bild”, Scholz later rejected the Holocaust accusation in clear terms. “Especially for us Germans, any relativization of the Holocaust is unbearable and unacceptable,” said the Chancellor.

The SPD politician later said so on Twitter. He condemns any attempt to “deny the crimes of the Holocaust,” Scholz wrote.

Scholz had previously criticized Abbas in the press conference for describing Israeli politics as an “apartheid system”. “I want to say explicitly at this point that I don’t adopt the word ‘apartheid’ and that I don’t think that’s the right way to describe the situation,” said Scholz.

Abbas had previously said the “transformation into the new reality of a single state in an apartheid system” does not serve security and stability in the region.

Israeli Prime Minister: “Moral Shame”

Israeli Prime Minister Jair Lapid has 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.

Auschwitz Committee sharply criticizes

The International Auschwitz Committee also sharply criticized Abbas’ statement and the reaction of the German side. Executive Vice President Christoph Heubner said of Abbas that the President “deliberately used the political arena in Berlin to defame the German culture of remembrance and relations with the State of Israel. With his shameful and inappropriate Holocaust comparison, Abbas again tried to be anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic to serve aggression in Germany and Europe.”

Heubner also criticized the federal government. “It is astonishing and disconcerting that the German side was not prepared for Abbas’ provocations and that his statements on the Holocaust in the press conference went unchallenged.”