The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts”, at a joint press convention with Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin, drawing condemnation from Germany and Israel.

On the finish of his state go to to Germany’s chancellory on Tuesday evening, Abbas was requested by a German journalist whether or not he deliberate to apologise for the lethal assault by Palestinian militants on Israeli residents on the 1972 Munich Olympics, the 50th anniversary of which is on 5 September.

The militant group Black September, which killed 11 Israeli athletes and one German police officer through the hostage-taking, was linked to Abbas’s Fatah celebration on the time.

“If we need to dig additional into the previous, sure, please, I’ve 50 massacres that had been dedicated by Israel,” the Palestinian chief stated on the finish of the press convention. “Fifty massacres, 50 Holocausts, and to today, day by day, we now have useless individuals killed by the [Israeli Defence Forces], by the Israeli military.”

Scholz, who had criticised Abbas for describing Israel as perpetuating an “apartheid system” earlier on within the press convention, didn’t instantly reply verbally to the Holocaust comparability however shook the Palestinian president’s hand after his spokesperson introduced the top of the question-and-answer session.

Scholz condemned the remarks on Wednesday morning. “I’m disgusted by the outrageous remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas”, Scholz tweeted from his official account. “For us Germans particularly, any relativisation of the singularity of the Holocaust is insupportable and unacceptable. I condemn any try and deny the crimes of the Holocaust.”

The top of the Palestinian diplomatic mission was summoned to the German chancellory in protest on Wednesday afternoon, Reuters reported.

The remarks additionally drew fireplace from varied German politicians. “The PLO chief would have gained sympathy if he had apologised for the terrorist assault on Israeli athletes on the Munich Olympics 1972,” stated Armin Laschet, the conservative candidate who misplaced out to Scholz in final September’s federal elections. “Accusing Israel of 50 Holocausts as a substitute is essentially the most disgusting speech ever heard within the German chancellery.”

The tabloid Bild criticised Scholz for in a roundabout way difficult Abbas about his alternative of phrases, which it described as “the worst Holocaust relativisation {that a} head of presidency has ever uttered within the chancellor’s workplace”.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, of the Free Democratic celebration, a associate within the coalition authorities, criticised the chancellor’s spokesperson for not giving Scholz time to reply on the finish of the press convention. “The query needs to be requested whether or not he’s the proper particular person in his position,” she instructed Der Spiegel.

Yair Lapid, the Israeli prime minister, stated Abbas’s feedback had been “not solely an ethical shame however a monstrous lie”, particularly as they had been made “on German soil”.

Roughly 6 million Jews had been murdered by the German Nazi celebration regime and its accomplices over the past 4 years of the second world conflict.

Israel’s designated ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, stated: “There needs to be zero tolerance for Mahmoud Abbas’s Holocaust denial on German soil.”

The Palestinian chief’s go to to Berlin adopted a visit to Paris in July, seen as a part of a broad diplomatic effort to evoke European curiosity in Palestine’s trigger within the face of America’s apparently waning curiosity in restarting the peace course of within the Center East.