The Central Council of Jews has harshly criticized Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) behavior after Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’ Holocaust statements to the Chancellery and calls on the federal government to reconsider financial support. “This was undoubtedly a mistake,” Central Council President Josef Schuster told the Tagesspiegel, noting that Scholz did not contradict Abbas in his Holocaust accusation against Israel and even shook his hand afterwards.
“I would have liked a clearer position from the Federal Chancellor. Everyone must vigorously oppose the denial or trivialization of the Shoah at all times. It doesn’t matter if it’s a president or someone sitting next to you on the bus, ”Schuster stressed.
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The president of the central council calls on the chancellor to reconsider the federal government’s broad financial support for the Palestinians. “Everyone knows what happens to German tax money in the Palestinian territories. The Central Council has long warned that this is being used to finance hate speech and terrorist propaganda, “Schuster said.
“Now everyone knows that this agitation is dictated from above. The federal government should once again think twice if these are the partners it wants to work with ”. Indirectly, Schuster demanded that such receptions and such a stage for Palestinians in the Chancellery be eliminated accordingly. “I certainly can’t imagine what they should bring.”
It happened when Scholz met Abbas
During his visit to Berlin on Tuesday afternoon, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of a “Holocaust” against the Palestinians. “Israel has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian cities since 1947,” Abbas said in a joint press conference with Scholz at the Chancellery. “50 massacres, 50 holocausts,” he added.
Scholz followed the statements with a petrified expression, visibly annoyed and even prepared to respond. His spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said the press conference was over immediately after Abbas’ response. The question to the Palestinian president was previously announced as the last. Hebestreit later reported that Scholz was outraged by Abbas’s statement.
Watch the video of the press conference here:
After the appointment, Scholz dismissed the “Holocaust” charge with clear words. “Especially for us Germans, any relativization of the Holocaust is unbearable and unacceptable,” said the Chancellor of the “Bild” newspaper.
Such an event is very unusual. The fact that his spokesperson sent individual quotes from the Chancellor to a newspaper demonstrates his awareness that they need to be corrected quickly.
Scholz will report Wednesday, now on Twitter
Scholz spoke again on Twitter Wednesday morning. His social media team wrote in German and English on behalf of the Chancellor: “I am deeply outraged by the unspeakable statements of Palestinian President Mahmoud. #Abbas. For us Germans in particular, any relativization of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable. I condemn any attempt to deny the crimes of the Holocaust. “
Prior to his controversial statement, a reporter asked Abbas if he would apologize to Israel on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Israeli Olympic team by Palestinian terrorists in Munich. There are people being killed by the Israeli army every day, Abbas said. “If we want to continue digging into the past, yes, please.” Abbas did not respond to the Olympic attack in which eleven Israelis were killed.
Scholz contradicts the “apartheid” arguments.
Scholz had previously criticized Abbas on the open stage for describing Israeli politics as an “apartheid system”. “I want to say explicitly at this point that I don’t adopt the word apartheid and that I don’t think it’s fair to describe the situation,” Scholz said.
Abbas had previously stated that the “transformation of a single state into an apartheid system into the new reality” does not serve security and stability in the region.
Furthermore, Abbas called on the EU and the United Nations (UN) to fully recognize the Palestinian state. Currently, Palestinians have only observer status at the United Nations. However, Scholz rejected Abbas’s request. Germany continues to support a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians, he said.
“This is not the time to change this,” Scholz said of observer status at the United Nations. Further steps should be based on a negotiated settlement with Israel. Abbas accused Israel of preventing this for a long time. The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians has been inactive since 2014.
Israeli Prime Minister Jair Lapid also clearly rejected Abbas’ Holocaust accusation. “The fact that Mahmoud Abbas accuses Israel of committing ’50 holocausts’ while on German soil is not just a moral disgrace, but a blatant lie,” Lapid tweeted Tuesday evening, referring to the six million Jews who are. were murdered during the Holocaust. History will never forgive Abbas. Lapid is himself the son of a Holocaust survivor.
The Auschwitz Committee harshly criticizes the reaction of Abbas and Scholz
The Auschwitz International Committee harshly criticized Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ accusation of the Holocaust against Israel and a hesitant reaction from Germany. Executive Vice President Christoph Heubner said Tuesday evening that the president had “purposely used the political scene in Berlin to defame the German culture of memory and the relationship with the state of Israel.
With his shameful and inappropriate comparison to the Holocaust, Abbas has once again attempted to cope with anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic aggression in Germany and Europe. “
Heubner also criticized the federal government. “It is surprising and strange that the German side was not prepared for Abbas’s provocations and that his statements about the Holocaust at the press conference were not contested,” Heubner said in Berlin.
Merz: “An incredible process in the Chancellery”
Criticism of Scholz’s reaction also comes from the opposition. “An incredible process in the Chancellery,” CDU leader Friedrich Merz wrote on Twitter on Tuesday evening. The chancellor “should have bluntly contradicted the Palestinian president and asked him to leave the house!” he argued.
CDU MP Matthias Hauer said: “Of course, Chancellor Olaf Scholz could and should have contradicted the Palestinian president after the relativization of the Holocaust. Remaining silent after such a mistake is unforgivable. ” (with dpa, Reuters)