BERLIN (AP) — Berlin police have opened a preliminary investigation against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over his comments this week that Israel had committed “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians.
The remarks, during a news conference in Berlin alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, sparked outrage in Germany, Israel and beyond.
Police confirmed a report Friday by German daily Bild that Abbas was being investigated for possible incitement to hatred after receiving a formal criminal complaint.
Downplaying the Holocaust is a criminal offense in Germany, but the opening of an preliminary inquiry doesn’t automatically entail a full investigation.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sharply criticized Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ accusation, made at a joint appearance, that Israel had committed a repeated Holocaust against the Palestinians. “For us Germans in particular, any relativization of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable. I condemn any attempt to deny the crimes of the Holocaust,” Scholz wrote on Twitter today. (Wolfgang Kumm/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Germany’s Foreign Ministry said that Abbas — as a representative of the Palestinian Authority — would enjoy immunity from prosecution because he was visiting the country in an official capacity.
Germany doesn’t recognize the Palestinian Territories as a sovereign state, a position Scholz reaffirmed Tuesday.
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