Foreign Office minister condemns Palestinian president over Holocaust remarks

A Foreign Office minister has condemned the Palestinian president after he appeared to justify the Holocaust in a speech attended by Emily Thornberry.



Alistair Burt said Mahmoud Abbas's remarks, at a meeting of the Palestinian National Council in Ramallah on Monday, were "deeply concerning".

President Abbas appeared to suggest that the Holocaust was not caused by anti-Semitism, but by the historic activities of Jewish people in the financial world.

He said: "Jews who moved to east and west Europe were facing a massacre every 10 or 15 years from a different country. The hatred towards the Jews is not because of their religion but because of their social roles related to taxes and banks."

Mr Burt said: "At a highly sensitive time in the region, when we must all look forwards and work urgently towards a resolution of the longstanding issues between Israel and the Palestinian people, the fundamentals of peace cannot be built on views of the Holocaust which fly in the face of history.

"Palestinian president Abbas’s comments at the Palestinian National Congress were deeply concerning. Any attempt to justify or explain away any element of the Holocaust is unacceptable.

"President Abbas has shown a commitment to non-violence and a two-state solution. But his recent rhetoric does not serve the interests of the Palestinian people and is deeply unhelpful to the cause of peace."

Shadow Foreign Secretary Ms Thornberry was in the room for the three-hour speech, but made no mention of it in a lengthy Facebook post after her trip.

However, in a subsequent statement she said: "It is deeply regrettable that, during a lengthy speech whose main and successful purpose was to urge the Palestinian National Council to remain committed to the Middle East peace process and the objective of a two-state solution, President Abbas made these anti-Semitic remarks about the history of the Jewish community in Europe which were not just grossly offensive, but utterly ignorant.

"His comments were out of keeping with the tone of the Council as a whole, and of my discussions with other delegates, and I hope President Abbas will immediately apologise for them, so that the message to come out of this important Council meeting can remain positive and progressive, and focused on re-establishing peaceful and constructive dialogue."