The German chancellor, Olaf Scholtz has told his Israeli counterpart that the Palestinian President Mahmoid Abass’s remarks on the Holocaust were totally out of place.
In a tweet after a phone call with Yair Lapid, the German leader who has received criticism for not reacting at the time the comments were made on Tuesday at a joint press conference with Abass during a state visit to Germany, has said any attempt to downplay or deny the Holocaust was unacceptable.
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“Our position is clear: we condemn any attempt to deny or downplay the importance of the Holocaust,”.
Abbas had accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians in response to a question about the upcoming 50th anniversary of the attack on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics by Palestinian militants.
On Wednesday, Scholz expressed his disgust that the Palestinian leader had diminished the singularity of the Holocaust, in which Nazis during Hitler’s reign murdered more than six million Jews.
A spokesperson in the German Chancellor’s office, Steffen Hebestreit took the blame for ending the joint news conference before Scholz could respond, and released a statement:
“The chancellor emphasized that he sharply condemns any attempt to deny or relativize the Holocaust,”.
The statement added that the Israeli Prime Minister’s office thanked Scholz “both as the Prime Minister of Israel, and as the son of Holocaust survivors.”, and that the two leaders also agreed to meet soon in the German capital, Berlin.
( Editor: Omor Bazuaye)
(Additional Information from Deutsche Welle)
