PM: No one can deny massacres committed against Palestinians by Israel

The Palestinian people do not deny the Holocaust but people and no one can deny the massacres committed against the Palestinians by Israel, Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said yesterday.

This came as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is facing backlash from German and Israeli officials for saying that Israel “has committed 50 Holocausts” against the Palestinian people.

During a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, Abbas was asked by a reporter whether he would apologise to Israel about the upcoming anniversary of the Munich massacre half a century ago, to which Abbas said “the Israeli army murders [Palestinians] daily”, adding that “since 1947, Israel has committed 50 massacres… 50 Holocausts” against the Palestinians.

“We do not deny the massacres that the Jews were subjected to, we do not deny the Holocaust, but no one can deny the massacres committed against the Palestinian people,” Shtayyeh said yesterday.

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Shtayyeh added that Abbas did not deny the Holocaust, but he told the world not to shut its eyes to the massacres committed against the Palestinian people.

He stressed that Abbas is facing an unprecedented attack from Israel and its tools, adding that the world has double standards which are rejected by the Palestinians.

“A massacre is a massacre regardless of who is the victim, occupation is an occupation regardless of where and when, colonialism is colonialism in all its forms,” Shtayyeh said.

On Wednesday, Abbas explained that he did not mean to deny the Nazi Holocaust, adding: “We reaffirm that the Holocaust is the most heinous crime that occurred in modern human history.”

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, during the establishment of the Israeli state, Zionist gangs have destroyed 531 Palestinian villages and committed more than 70 massacres, killing about 15,000 Palestinians.