Olaf Scholz ‘disgusted’ over Palestinian president’s Holocaust remarks

Olaf Scholz has condemned comments made by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader, after he claimed the Jewish state was responsible for “50 holocausts”.

Mr Abbas made the inflammatory remark while discussing the killing of Palestinians by Israeli forces at a press conference in Berlin with Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor.

“If we want to go over the past, go ahead...I have 50 slaughters that Israel committed… 50 massacres, 50 holocausts. And until today, every day we have more killed by the IDF [Israeli military] by Israel,” he said.

Mr Scholz faced scathing domestic criticism for not rebuking Mr Abbas during the press conference, though he posted a tweet condemning the Palestinian leader the next morning.

“I am disgusted by the outrageous remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,” Mr Scholz wrote. “For us Germans in particular, any relativisation of the singularity of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable. I condemn any attempt to deny the crimes of the Holocaust.”

Mr Abbas subsequently retracted his remark and said he had not intended to “deny the singularity of the Holocaust,” which he acknowledged as “the most heinous crime in modern human history”.

The German chancellery on Wednesday summoned the head of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Berlin to protest Mr Abbas’ comments, a German government spokesman said.

“It is clear for us, the government and the chancellor, that the persecution and systematic murder of six million European Jews is an unparalleled crime against humanity,” the spokesman said.

The Palestinian leader had been responding to a question about the 1972 Munich massacre, in which 11 Israelis and a German police officer were killed by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September.

When asked whether he wanted to apologise for that attack ahead of its 50th anniversary, Mr Abbas moved to the subject of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and then made the “50 Holocausts” claim.

‘Monstrous lie’

He was accused by Yair Lapid, the Israeli prime minister, of speaking a “monstrous lie”. Mr Lapid added: “Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, including one and a half million Jewish children. History will never forgive him.”

Dani Dayan, the chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, said Mr Abbas’ remarks were “despicable” and “appalling”, as did Steffen Seibert, Germany's ambassador to Israel.

Mr Scholz was criticised heavily by Israeli commentators who were angered that he failed to confront Mr Abbas immediately, especially in light of Germany’s Nazi past.

He was also accused by German rivals and newspapers of failing to stand up to anti-Semitism and lacking in moral leadership.

“What took place in the chancellery is unbelievable,” said Friedrich Merz, the leader of the opposition party CDU. “The chancellor should have clearly objected and asked him to leave the building.”

The top-selling newspaper Bild described Mr Scholz’ decision to stay silent as “a terrible, inconceivable failure”. The newspaper also furiously protested that Mr Scholz said “not a word of dissent in the face of the worst Holocaust relativisation that a head of government has ever uttered in the chancellor’s office”.

The German Jewish Council meanwhile accused Mr Abbas of “trampling on the memory of six million murdered Jews and damaging the memory of all victims of the Holocaust”.