Yesterday, Wednesday, Berlin summoned the head of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Germany to protest against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's comparison of the Israeli attacks on the Palestinians to the Holocaust.
"It is clear to us (the government and the chancellor) that the systematic persecution and murder of 6 million European Jews is an unparalleled crime against humanity," a German government spokesman said.
Abbas said in a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Schulz in Berlin on Tuesday, "Since 1947 until today, Israel has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian sites," adding, "50 massacres, 50 Holocausts."
A journalist asked Abbas if he would apologize to Israel on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the attack on the Israeli sports mission at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Abbas replied, saying that there are daily casualties by the Israeli army.
“Yes, if we want to continue digging in the past.”
Abbas did not mention in his answer the attack on the Israeli Olympic mission.
Earlier, Shultz rejected in clear terms Abbas' accusation that Israel committed a "Holocaust" against the Palestinians.
In statements to the German newspaper "Bild", the German chancellor said last Tuesday that "any underestimation of the Holocaust is intolerable and particularly unacceptable for us Germans."
He also said in a tweet on Twitter that he was "disgusted" by what he described as the scandalous statements made by the Palestinian president, stressing that he condemns any attempt to deny the crimes of the Holocaust, as he put it.