WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has made a comparison between the Zionist regime’s actions against Palestinians and the Holocaust.
During a visit to Berlin on Tuesday, Abbas said that the Zionist regime had “committed 50 massacres in Palestinian villages and cities” since 1947, referencing the war that preceded the occupation of Palestinian lands and the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their lands.
“In Deir Yassin, Tantura, Kafr Qasim and many others, 50 massacres, 50 Holocausts,” he said at the joint press conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Scholz did not respond to the “Holocaust” reference at the press conference - however, on Wednesday he tweeted that he was “disgusted” by Abbas’ comments.
Abbas’ visit to Germany has come as tensions have risen in the region with Zionist troops arresting dozens of Palestinians in the West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip overnight Monday and into Tuesday morning.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, which represents former and current inmates, reported incursions across the West Bank.
It said dozens of houses had been broken into and searched, with residents interrogated and detained for long periods.
Speaking at the press conference on Tuesday, Scholz said he took issue with Abbas using the term “apartheid” to describe the current state of affairs in Zionist-Palestine.
“Of course, regarding the Israeli politics we have a different assessment. I want to say clearly that I won’t use the word ‘apartheid’ and I don’t believe it is right to use the term to describe the situation,” Scholz said.
Palestinians have long described their treatment by the occupying regime as “apartheid” and in recent years a number of rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Israeli NGO B’tselem, have also agreed with the assessment.