Middle East Conflict
Abbas accuses Israel of “Holocaust” against the Palestinians
Olaf Scholz and Mahmoud Abbas (left) appearing together in front of journalists in Berlin Photo
© Wolfgang Kumm/dpa
At a joint press conference with the Chancellor, Palestinian President Abbas raises very serious allegations against Israel – he speaks of a “Holocaust”. Scholz follows the statements with a petrified expression.
During his visit to Berlin, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of a “Holocaust” against the Palestinians. “Israel has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian locations since 1947 to this day,” said Abbas at a joint press conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in the Chancellery. “50 massacres, 50 holocausts,” he added.
He had previously been asked by a journalist whether he would apologize to Israel on the 50th anniversary of the attack on the Israeli Olympic team by Palestinian terrorists in Munich. Abbas said there were dead people killed by the Israeli army every day. “If we want to continue digging into the past, yes please.” In his reply, Abbas did not address the attack on the Olympics, in which eleven Israelis were killed.
Scholz had previously criticized Abbas on the open stage 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.