During a press conference in Berlin, Palestinian President Abbas accuses the state of Israel of a “Holocaust”. Chancellor Scholz is visibly annoyed. However, he only expresses his objection belatedly.
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 towns since 1947 to this day,” said Abbas at a joint press conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz 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 followed the statements with a petrified expression, visibly annoyed and also made preparations to reply. His spokesman Steffen Hebestreit declared the press conference over immediately after Abbas’ reply. The question to the Palestinian President had previously been announced as the last. Hebestreit later reported that Scholz was outraged by Abbas’ statement. The chancellor himself told the “Bild” newspaper: “Especially for us Germans, any relativization of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable.”
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.
Abbas also called on the EU and the United Nations to fully recognize the Palestinian state. Currently, the Palestinians only have observer status at the UN. However, Scholz rejected Abbas’ request. Germany continues to support a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians, he said. “It is not the time to change this situation,” said Scholz about the observer status at the UN. Further steps would have to be based on a negotiated solution with Israel. Abbas accused Israel of preventing this for a long time.
