Criticism Widens Of Palestinian Prez\'s Holocaust Comments

The criticism grows of Palestinian President’s Holocaust remarks

Berlin 18 August : German and EU officials expressed their displeasure over remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that compared the treatment of Israelis of Palestinians in the Holocaust.Holocaust.
The newly appointed German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, said Abbas’ comments were “wrong and unacceptable” according to the dpa news agency reported.

 Criticism Widens Of Palestinian Prez's Holocaust Comments-TeluguStop.com

“Germany will never be a part of any attempt to discredit the singularity of the crimes of the Holocaust,” he wrote in English on Twitter.

The German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told the tabloid publication Bild that Abbas”‘s comparison was “totally inconvenient and especially painful since it occurred in the capital of our country.”

Margaritis Schinas Margaritis Schinas European Commissioner in charge of combating anti-Semitism, also stated on Twitter that Abbas said that his remarks were “unacceptable.”

In describing the Holocaust as “an permanent mark in European historical record,” Schinas said that “Holocaust distortion is a risk.It fuels anti-Semitism, and has a an unsettling impact on the democratic process.”

Abbas on Tuesday said that Israel of committed the crime of committing a “Holocaust” against Palestinians during an Berlin press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin.”Israel has been responsible for 50 mass murders in 50 Palestinian places in the years since 1947″ Abbas said, adding: “50 massacres, 50 Holocausts.”

His comments were in an answer to a journalist who inquired if he would be willing to apologize to Israel on the anniversary of the 50th anniversary of the attack of Palestinian terrorists against the Israeli team during the 1972 Olympics in Munich in 1972.The attack resulted in the deaths of 10 Israeli athletes and their coaches, as in addition to one German police officer.

Scholz was attentive to Abbas the response with a expression of dismay and anger and did not provide an immediate response, which prompted critique from conservatives.

German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit took the responsibility for Scholz’s reaction that was delayed.

The press conference ended too quickly and the chancellor was disappointed not being in a position to intervene another time and react directly to Abbas the remarks, Hebestreit said in Berlin Wednesday.

“I was not fast enough, or attentive enough to take action,” the spokesman explained.”That was my fault.”

The chancellor then issued an announcement to Bild the magazine, stating that “especially for us Germans any kind of reinterpretation of the Holocaust is inexplicably and inadmissible.”

Scholz was adamant on Twitter on Wednesday that he was irritated by Abbas’ “intolerable statements.”

Former chancellor Angela Merkel also weighed in on Wednesday.

“Former Federal Chancellor Dr.Merkel condemns the remarks made by President Abbas in the context of his press conference in Berlin in the most fervent terms possible,” the spokesperson for Merkel’s office replied to a question from Bild.

Abbas said that his statement was an inadmissible “attempt to diminish the significance of the crimes perpetrated by Germany during National Socialism, the breach of civilization caused by the Shoah or to place the State of Israel directly or indirectly on the same footing that Germany in the National Socialist era,” the spokeswoman said.

Abbas himself, on Wednesday referred to the Holocaust as “the most horrible crime in the history of mankind in the past” according to an article issued by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Abbas reportedly claimed that his reference of Israeli policies against Palestinians to the Holocaust was “not intended to negate the uniqueness of the Holocaust”.

He wanted to bring attention to “crimes and massacres that have been committed against the Palestinian people since the Nakba (Israeli independence) at the of the forces of Israel’s Israeli forces,” the Palestinian president explained.

int/shs

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