US and EU slam Palestinian president's remarks on Holocaust

[Beastly Boy]

The United States and European Union on Thursday criticised remarks about the World War Two persecution of Jews and antisemitism by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In a statement, the EU's diplomatic service said the 87-year-old Abbas's remarks, made in late August to a meeting of his Fatah movement's Revolutionary Council, were "false and grossly misleading".

Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, called for an immediate apology for what she said were Abbas's "hateful, antisemitic remarks".

There was no immediate comment from Abbas. Members of his Fatah party did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

In his remarks Abbas said Jews were targeted by Nazi Germany because of their "social role" rather than their religion.

"This has been explained by many Jewish authors. When they said that Hitler killed the Jews for being Jews, and that Europe hates the Jews because they were Jews, no. It was clearly explained that they fought (the Jews) because of their social role and not their religion," Abbas said.

-- snip--

In a statement, the foreign affairs spokesman for the EU, one of the major donors to the Palestinian Authority, called the remarks "an insult to the millions of victims of the Holocaust and their families".

"Such historical distortions are inflammatory, deeply offensive, can only serve to exacerbate tensions in the region and serve no one's interests," he said. "They play into the hands of those who do not want a two-state solution, which President Abbas has repeatedly advocated for."

https://news.yahoo.com/us-eu-slam-palestinian-presidents-153128265.html

I am not sure how Mr. Abbas thinks this would have worked in Nazi Germany... If I were a Jew in Europe under Hitler's rule and changed my social role, would I stop being a Jew and escape extermination? By extension, when Hamas calls for kicking all the Jews out of Israel, is this a social role thing?

[The Magistrate]

1. What Is Often Forgotten, Sir

Is that Arab Nationalists of various stripes enthusiastically supported the Nazis during WWII. It's one of the reasons their political efforts against the post-war establishment of Israel fell so flat.

His 'social role' line is a restatement of familiar anti-semitic tropes of Jews controlling banking and media and being behind all various sort of 'degeneracy'....

[Beastly Boy]

2. Thank you for putting Mr. Abbas' comments in historical perspective.

The history of accusing the Jews of all sorts of repulsive and antisocial acts is long, and it precedes Mr Abbas' sentiments by centuries. The accusations vary as they get proven to be nothing more than damn lies, but the targets of these accusations remain unchanged.

In creating these narratives, antisemites consistently and deliberately interchange cause and effect, but any elementary examination of their statements exposes the true nature of their motives: it is their antisemitism that is the cause, and that effectuates their narrative. Not the other way around, as they would like everyone to believe.

[sabbat hunter]

3. not the first time

Abbas has made these type of remarks. Probably won't be the last.