German police confirm probe into Abbas ‘Holocaust’ remark

German police have launched an investigation into Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after he remarked this week that Israel had committed “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians.

The Palestinian leader made the remark at press conference with the German chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier this week, sparking international outrage.

Police confirmed a report by the German tabloid Bild that a preliminary investigation into Abbas for possible incitement to hatred was underway after they had received a formal criminal complaint.

It is a criminal offence in Germany to downplay the Holocaust, although a preliminary inquiry does not necessarily mean a full investigation will follow.

And Abbas is immune from prosecution because he was visiting the country in an official capacity, Germany’s Foreign Ministry confirmed.

The Palestinian President made the ‘Holocaust’ remark after being asked if he planned to apologise for the deaths of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

The Palestinian group Black September, which was linked to Abbas’s Fatah party at the time of the attack, took the eleven athletes and coaches hostage before killing them.

Abbas expressed no regret for the incident, responding in Arabic: “If we want to go over the past, go ahead”.

He then said that Israel had committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian locations since 1947, adding: “50 massacres, 50 Holocausts.”

Scholz was seen to grimace as the Palestinian leader used the word “Holocausts”.

A later statement published by Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, said Abbas had “not intended to deny the singularity of the Holocaust” and the president reaffirmed it as the “most heinous crime in modern human history”.