Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday accused Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas of being an anti-Semitic Holocaust denier by suggesting that European Jews had been persecuted because of their roles as bankers and money lenders, not their religion.
In a rambling speech Monday to the Palestinian National Council in Ramallah, Abbas, 83, said that Jews living in Europe had suffered massacres “every 10 to 15 years in some country since the 11th century and until the Holocaust.”
Citing books written by Karl Marx and two other Jewish authors, he argued: “They say hatred against Jews was not because of their religion, it was because of their social profession.
“So the Jewish issue that had spread against the Jews across Europe was not because of their religion, it was because of usury and banks.”
Netanyahu took to Twitter to slam Abbas for his comments, which marked the second time in several months the Palestinian leader gave his take on Jewish and Zionist history.
“It would appear that, once a Holocaust denier, always a Holocaust denier,” Netanyahu wrote in Hebrew on Twitter. “I call upon the international community to condemn the grave anti-Semitism of Abu Mazen (Abbas), which should have long since passed from this world.”
In a January speech during a meeting of the PLO Central Council, Abbas also argued that Israel is a “colonial project with no relationship to Judaism,” according to the Jerusalem Post.
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman also lashed out Tuesday at Abbas’ remarks.
“Abu Mazen has reached a new low,” Friedman tweeted, referring to Abbas by his nickname. “To all those who think Israel is the reason that we don’t have peace, think again.”
Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for international negotiations, called the statements “very distressing and terribly disheartening.”
Tensions between the Palestinians and Washington have been mounting since Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last year, prompting the Palestinians to suspend contacts with the administration.
In March, Abbas called Friedman a “son of a dog” during a rant that the US diplomat suggested was anti-Semitic.
Meanwhile, Jewish leaders around the world joined in the condemnation of Abbas’ incendiary words.
“Abbas’ speech in Ramallah are the words of a classic anti-Semite,” said Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper of the US-based Jewish human rights organization the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
“Instead of blaming the Jews, he should look in his own backyard to the role played by the Grand Mufti in supporting Adolf Hitler’s Final Solution,” they added.
They were referring to Muslim Grand Mufti Haj Amin Husseini, a World War II ally of Hitler, whose “Final Solution” led to the killing of 6 million Jews across Europe.