The words of Palestinian National Authority head Mahmoud Abbas at a joint press conference with Olaf Scholz in Berlin and the federal chancellor’s reaction caused a scandal. When asked if Abbas would like to apologize on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the bloody attack by Palestinian terrorists on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics, he said: “Israel from 1947 until today has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian settlements. 50 massacres, 50 holocausts.” .

The press conference ended there, and Scholz did not immediately respond to Abbas in public and even shook his hand. The chancellor reacted just hours later. His belated reaction, like Abbas’ outrageous comments, drew strong criticism in Germany and the world.

The Chancellor’s Late Apologies

After the scandal, Olaf Scholz told the Bild newspaper: “It is for us Germans that any relativization of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable.” According to Scholz, Abbas’ claim is baseless and anti-Semitic in nature. The head of Palestinian national autonomy “equates armed clashes between Palestinians and Israelis in villages and cities with the systematic murder of millions of Jews,” the German chancellor said.

But those words are clearly too late. Opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz criticized Scholz’s actions, calling them “inconceivable”. “The chancellor should have ‘clearly and unequivocally objected to the Palestinian president and asked him to leave!'” the politician wrote on Twitter.

Scholz’s rival for the CDU presidency in the recent parliamentary elections, Armin Laschet, said that Abass’s “50 Holocaust” comments were “the most disgusting speech ever delivered in the Federal Chancellor’s office”.

“It’s Not Just a Scandal”

Abbas’s statement “tramples on the memory of the six million Jews killed and harms the memory of all victims of the Holocaust” and should not have been left without comment, said Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. “The fact that the relativization of the Holocaust, especially in Germany, in a press conference at the Federal Chancellor’s office, went unanswered, I consider it a scandal,” he pointed out.

“It’s not just a scandal when it happens, as in this case, just a few hundred meters from the Holocaust Memorial. But in such a place – even more,” writes the newspaper Die Welt. The publication draws attention to the Chancellor’s behavior. “You can understand that Scholz did not interrupt him (Abbas. – Red.) for reasons of diplomatic customs. Shake his hand after that and walk off stage like nothing happened – no.

However, the main emphasis in the commentary is on the failure of the press service of the head of the German government, who “either failed to hear what was said on stage, or failed to respond flexibly and provide the chancellor with an unplanned information opportunity to comment on the statements. When proposals of such importance are made, the protocol must not be followed in full.” At the same time, highlights Die Welt, it was possible to prepare for such a situation, as it is not the first time that Abbas has drawn attention with his scandalous statements about the Holocaust.

Abbas wanted to defame the German culture of memory

Similar criticisms came from the International Auschwitz Committee (IAK). “It is surprising and discouraging that the German side is not prepared for Abbas’ provocations and that his statements about the Holocaust were not challenged at the press conference,” IAK Executive Vice President Christoph Heubner said, according to dpa. He noted that Abbas “deliberately used the political scene in Berlin to defame German memory culture and relations with Israel”. “With his shameful and inappropriate comparison to the Holocaust, Abbas has once again tried to appease anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic aggression in Germany and Europe,” Heubner said.

Slap in Germany

The president of the German-Israeli Society (DIG), Volker Beck, is confident that the scandal should result in immediate changes in bilateral relations between Germany and the Palestinian National Authority. He reminded the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that Berlin funds autonomy, whose authorities financially support the relatives of terrorists killed in “successful” terrorist attacks against Israel. “Germany must not indirectly finance anti-Israeli terrorism,” said a former Bundestag deputy from the Soyuz-90/Greens party. The politician called “mocking the victims of the Olympic terror attack” a slap in the face for Germany. The press conference showed, Beck noted, “whose creation is Abbas.”

Alexander Lambsdorff, vice president of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) faction in the Bundestag, agrees with him. The politician, whose party is part of the ruling coalition, wrote on his Twitter: the general public has finally learned “who are the Palestinians and Abbas – the supposed ‘partners’ of Israel”. According to Lambsdorff, this is much more important than the criticism of the Federal Chancellor, “whose indignation was very visible.”