Abbas addresses Palestinian National Council 23rd opening session
Abbas addresses Palestinian National Council 23rd opening sessionFlash 90

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Monday said the Holocaust was not caused by anti-Semitism, but by the “social behavior” of the Jews, including money-lending, reports Times of Israel.

In a long speech in Ramallah at a rare session of the Palestinian National Council, Abbas regurgitated a number of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in what he called a “history lesson,” seeking to disprove the 3,000 year-old Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.

Abbas addresses the Palestinian National Council 23rd opening session
Abbas addresses the Palestinian National Council 23rd opening sessionצילום: Flash 90

Abbas backed his story with three points made by Jewish writers and historians, starting with the theory that Ashkenazi Jews are not descendants of the ancient Israelite, and that European Jews therefore had “no historical ties” to the Land of Israel.

He went on to claim the Holocaust was not the result of anti-Semitism but rather of the Jews “social behavior, [charging] interest, and financial matters.”

Abbas also claimed Israel was conceived as a European project, saying European leaders such as the United Kingdom’s Lord Arthur Balfour restricted Jewish immigration their countries while simultaneously promoting Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel.

Abbas told the hundreds of delegates he was sticking to his rejection of any US proposals for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal following the Trump administration’s December recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and decision to move the US Embassy there.

“This is completely unacceptable,” he said at the four-day meeting's opening. “We won't accept this deal, and we won't accept the US as sole broker.”