NewsRescue
The United States and the European Union have accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of making anti-Semitic slurs and misrepresenting history in light of his recent remarks about the Holocaust and the roots of European Jews.
In August, Abbas delivered a speech to senior members of his Fatah Party in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in which he asserted that Adolf Hitler “killed” Jews “because of their social role, not their religion.”
According to a translation by an Israeli-linked US research group, the Middle East Media Research Institute, the Nazi German dictator “hated” them because they “dealt with usury and money.”
“This was not about Semitism and antisemitism,” he added, referring to the Holocaust, in which the Nazis murdered six million Jews.
Abbas also reiterated his former remark that, unlike their counterparts in the Middle East, “European Jews are not Semites.” They are unrelated to Semitism.” In 2018, he proposed that European Jews’ forebears were nomadic Turkic nomads known as the Khazars.
Deborah Lipstadt, US Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, took to X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday to condemn the Palestinian leader’s “hateful, antisemitic remarks” and demand “an immediate apology,” writing that he had “maligned the Jewish people, distorted the Holocaust, and misrepresented the tragic exodus of Jews from Arab countries.”
Meanwhile, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield argued that, in addition to being “hateful and antisemitic,” Abbas’ words “undermine prospects for a secure and peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians.”
The EU also joined the chorus of condemnation, stating in a statement that Abbas’ words “trivialize the Holocaust, fueling anti-Semitism, and are an insult to the millions of Holocaust victims and their families.”
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Abbas’s spokesman, denied the claims, claiming that a “rabid campaign” against his boss has been launched in the West. Abbas’ position on the matter is “clear and documented, which is the complete condemnation of the Holocaust and the rejection of antisemitism,” he said.
