Berlin police opened an investigation into Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, according to German media. He is being investigated for Holocaust denial – a criminal offense in Germany.
Berlin native and descendent of Holocaust survivors Mike Delberg filed the official police report to the Berlin Police on Wednesday, after Abbas made comments comparing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the Holocaust at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
When Abbas was asked whether he would apologize for the attack on the Israeli Olympic team by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, he responded by saying, “If you want to go over the past, go ahead. I have 50 slaughters that Israel committed… 50 massacres, 50 slaughters… 50 holocausts.”
The report reads: “On August 16, Mahmoud Abbas publicly downplayed the Holocaust with the following words: ‘Israel has, since 1947 until today, committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian locations.’ He added, ’50 massacres, 50 Holocausts.'”
What do legal experts say?
︎German criminal defense attorney Udo Vetter told German newspaper Bild that “the statement simply cannot be understood other than downplaying it in the sense of a bold relativization. Unless you allow Mr. Abbas to live in a fantasy world. Initial suspicion of downplaying the Nazi tyranny cannot be dismissed out of hand.”
Augsburg University criminal law professor Michael Kubiciel also acknowledged a solid basis for criminal proceedings. “The comparison is completely misplaced and can therefore be evaluated as a trivialization of the Holocaust,” he told Bild. “The disturbance of the public peace is blatant.”
