Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of committing multiple "holocausts" against the Palestinian Arabs during a speech alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin Tuesday.
Abbas used the English word "holocausts" when responding to a question regarding the Munich Massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic games by Palestinian Arab terrorists.
Abbas dismissed a question over whether he would apologize for the massacre and said: “I have 50 slaughters that Israel committed….50 massacres, 50 slaughters, 50 holocausts,”
Chancellor Scholz was visibly upset at Abbas' remarks and scowled. He did not respond at the time, but later said that hearing the word from Abbas was "unbearable."
German media and politicians reacted with outrage to the statement, with the BILD newspaper running the headline: "Antisemitism scandal at the federal chancellery” and decrying Scholz's silence following Abbas' statement.
Conservative German lawmaker Armin Laschet accused Abbas of "disgusting" behavior.
Abbas "would have gained sympathy if he had apologized for the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics 1972,” Laschet wrote on Twitter. “Accusing Israel of ‘50 Holocausts’ instead is the most disgusting speech ever heard in the German Chancellery."
Christian Democrats party chairman Friedrich Merz said it was "incomprehensible" that Scholz did not respond to Abbas' use of the term Holocaust.
A spokesman for Scholz told BILD: "Before the Chancellor could contradict this outrageous sentence, the government spokesman had already moderated the press conference — as usual after the last question/answer block — which visibly annoyed Scholz."
“The government spokesman then told the journalists who were still present, who could not help noticing the Chancellor’s annoyance, how outraged the Chancellor was about the statement and also that he had not had the opportunity to openly contradict Abbas.”
Scholz went on to tell BILD: “Especially for us Germans, any relativization of the Holocaust is unbearable and unacceptable.”
During their meeting, Scholz also contradicted Abbas after the latter accused Israel of Apartheid.