Article Author:
Associated Press
Frank Jordans
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday condemned Israel's prime minister for attempts to deny or downplay the Holocaust. He said it would give Palestinians a sense of security. President Mahmoud Abbas sparked outrage earlier this week with remarks to his effect.
At a joint press conference with Scholz in Berlin on Tuesday, Abbas accused Israel of committing "50 Holocausts" against the Palestinians over the years. Scholz, who was standing next to Abbas, did not immediately react to the comments, but later criticized them strongly.
Scholz's office said the German leader spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Jair Rapid on Thursday to discuss relations between the two countries.
"The Chancellor emphasized that he strongly condemns any attempt to deny or relativize the Holocaust," Scholz spokesman Steffen said in his Hevestlight. .
"It is the eternal responsibility of this and all German governments to keep alive the memory of the collapse of civilization on the Shore," he added, referring to the Holocaust in commonly used Hebrew. I mentioned
The postwar German government has long argued that the term Holocaust refers to a unique crime: an organization of six million European Jews by the Nazis and their minions during the Third Reich.
Abbas appeared to have retracted his comments on Wednesday. His office said in a written statement that the reference to Palestinian leaders was "not intended to deny the idiosyncrasies of the Holocaust that occurred in the last century." The remarks drew outrage in Europe, the United States and Israel, with Rapid calling it "not only a moral disgrace but a colossal lie", but Scholz did not immediately intervene at the press conference. was similarly criticized for It was held at his Prime Minister's official residence.
``I find it scandalous that the Holocaust is being relativized successfully, especially in Germany, at a press conference at the Federal Chancellery,'' said the German Jewish Central Council. The head of the association, Josef Schuster, said:
Abbas' comments were in response to his Associated Press question regarding his 50th anniversary of the attack by Palestinian militants at the 1972 Munich Olympics, resulting in Israeli 11 members of the German police officers died.
