(ANSA-afp) - BERLIN, 17 AGO - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
on Wednesday voiced "disgust" at statements by Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas in Berlin on the Holocaust, amid a
growing outcry in Germany and Israel. At a joint press
conference with Scholz on Tuesday, Abbas, 87, was asked if he
would apologise on behalf of the Palestinian gunmen who carried
out the Munich Olympics hostage-taking in 1972 that ended with
11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed. Abbas did not give a
direct reply but instead compared it to the situation in the
Palestinian territories, and accused Israel of committing "50
massacres, 50 Holocausts" against Palestinians since 1947. "I am
disgusted by the outrageous remarks made by Palestinian
President Mahmud #Abbas," Scholz wrote on Twitter. "For us
Germans in particular, any relativisation of the singularity of
the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable. I condemn any
attempt to deny the crimes of the Holocaust."
Scholz himself also drew fire for failing to immediately condemn
Abbas' remarks at the press conference, which ended following
the Palestinian leader's statements. "One would have liked
(Scholz's) clarification to be more immediate," wrote Spiegel
magazine. Christoph Heubner, executive vice president of the
International Auschwitz Committee said he found it "astonishing
and disconcerting that the German side was not prepared for
Abbas' provocations, and that his statements on the Holocaust
were left unchallenged at the press conference." (ANSA-afp).
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