Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has recalled his ambassador to Chile, following anti-Semitic statements the envoy made at a convention held in Santiago.

Ambassador Imad Nabil Jadaa made the comments during a Palestine Peace Conference, held two months ago in the Chilean capital.

At the conference, Jadaa said that “a group of intellectuals and financial advisers, mostly non-Jewish Europeans, decided to establish the Zionist movement with one aim: the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people. However, the truth of the matter was that it was meant to facilitate Jewish plans to dominate the entire world.” He quoted from the notorious forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." His words were published by the New York-based “Institute for the study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy.”

According to Palestinian sources, Abbas was furious and instructed his foreign minister Riad al-Malki to recall the envoy for consultations. Abbas reportedly saw the remarks as a sharp deviation from his official line that Palestinians have no quarrel with Jews or Judaism, but oppose Israeli policy.

A Palestinian source says that it is doubtful that the ambassador will return to his post and a replacement will probably be named.

Jadaa also told the conference that he didn't recognize "the existence of a Jewish people." In "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," he said, the Jews "detailed their plans to manipulate all financial, industrial and economic tools across the world. However, we Palestinians don’t hate Jews. We don’t recognize the existence of a Jewish people. There is no such nation. This is not my personal analysis. A religion cannot be a nation.”

The ambassador noted a book by Prof. Shlomo Sand - “The Invention of the Jewish People" - from Tel Aviv University to support his point.