The EAJC strongly condemns Mahmoud Abbas's remarks regarding "50 Holocausts"

During his visit to Berlin on August 16, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas made several anti-Israel statements. At a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Abbas refused to condemn the terrorist attack on September 5, 1972, at the Munich Olympics, which claimed the lives of 11 Israeli athletes. Abbas asserted that Israel had committed "50 holocausts against the Palestinian people" and referred to the Jewish state as an "apartheid state."

This statement provoked a wave of outrage among Israeli leadership and Jewish community leaders worldwide. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid remarked that the PA leader's statement "is not only a moral disgrace but also a monstrous distortion of history." Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz described Abbas's words as "false and despicable," adding that "the attempt to equate the actions of the Nazis and their accomplices, who sought to annihilate the Jewish people, with the actions of the IDF, which protects the country's citizens from brutal terror, constitutes Holocaust denial."

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress strongly condemns the statement made by the head of the Palestinian National Authority and deems it utterly unacceptable. Such views may have dangerous consequences and lead to a new surge in antisemitism.

"Attempts to distort the memory of the horrific tragedy of the Holocaust constitute an absolutely inadmissible practice that has no place in the modern world. As we can see, individuals who make such statements are unaffected by objective data and evidence; they have no interest in historical truth. They manipulate reality to suit their immediate political interests. Such manipulations are intolerable, as their destructive side effect is the incitement of antisemitic sentiments in society," stated EAJC President Dr. Michael Mirilashvili.