Abbas unleashes outrage by accusing Israel of having committed a "holocaust" against the Palestinians

BERLIN, Aug. 17 (DPA/EP) -

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sparked outrage on Tuesday by accusing Israel of committing a "holocaust" against the Palestinians.

"Israel has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian towns since 1947. 50 massacres, 50 holocausts," Abbas said during a press conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Abbas's remarks were in response to a journalist who asked him if he would apologize to Israel on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the attack by Palestinian terrorists on the Israeli team during the 1972 Munich Olympics, which left 10 dead. Israeli athletes and coaches, as well as a German police officer.

Scholz listened to the remarks with a look of alarm and annoyance, but did not offer an immediate response, according to the German news agency dpa.

However, later, Scholz has asserted to the newspaper 'Bild' that relativizing this historical fact is unacceptable. "For us, the Germans in particular, any relativization of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable," he declared.

For their part, German opposition conservatives said Scholz's handling of the incident was "incomprehensible" as he should have "clearly and unequivocally contradicted the Palestinian president and asked him to leave."

Israel's Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, has described Abbas's statements as "moral disgrace", after recalling that six million Jews were killed, including one and a half million children, for which "history will never forgive him" .

"Mahmoud Abbas accusing Israel of having committed '50 holocausts' while on German soil is not only a moral disgrace, but a monstrous lie," he criticized in a message on his Twitter account.