Berlin: Visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sparked outrage when he accused Israel of committing a “Holocaust” against Palestinians during a joint press conference here with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
During the joint press conference on Tuesday, Abbas said that “Israel has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian locations since 1947” and added “50 massacres, 50 Holocausts”, reports dpa news agency.
Abbas’ remarks were in response to a journalist who asked whether he would apologise to Israel on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the attack by Palestinian terrorists on the Israeli team during the 1972 Olympics in Munich, which resulted in the death of 10 Israeli athletes and coaches as well as one German police officer.
Also Read Iraq’s finance minister resigns over political crisis Scholz listened to the statements with a look of alarm and annoyance, but did not offer an immediate reply.
His spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit declared the news conference over immediately after Abbas’ answer, which had been previously announced as the last question. Hebestreit said afterwards that Scholz was outraged by Abbas’ statements.
“For us Germans in particular, any relativisation of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable,” Scholz later told the German tabloid Bild.
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