On Tuesday, during a press conference in Berlin, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of massacring the Palestinian people, saying that since 1947 the country has committed “50 holocausts” against the Palestinians. Thus, Abbas equated the clashes between Palestinians and Israelis with the systematic murder of millions of Jews.
However, it was not only Abbas’ anti-Semitic statement that provoked a storm of criticism in both Germany and Israel, but also Scholz’s reaction: the Chancellor left the Palestinian President’s remark unanswered, and then shook his hand.
Only 15 hours after the incident, Olaf Scholz wrote on his Twitter:
“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.”