Jerusalem, 25 January, 2023 (TPS) -- With a 40-year history of Holocaust revisionism, Mahmoud Abbas is not expected to participate in somber International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations on Friday.
January 27, the anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945, is the date designated by the United Nations to remember the six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany during World War II. But Abbas’s views on the Holocaust are contrary to the spirit of the day.
The Palestinian leader’s views go back to 1982 while studying in Moscow’s Patrice Lumumba University — now known as the Peoples Friendship University of Moscow. That was the year he completed his dissertation, “The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement 1933–1945.”
The dissertation, for which Abbas was awarded a Ph.D degree, claimed that Zionists and Nazis collaborated to kill Jews in exchange for receiving Palestinian property. He described Jews and Nazis as “fundamental partners” in the Holocaust who shared equal blame.
According to Abbas, the extermination campaign was not aimed only at Jews. He further argued that the number of Jews killed by the Nazis was 896,000.
Some Palestinians are acknowledging that Abbas’s Holocaust rhetoric are damaging their efforts for statehood. In August, Abbas sparked international anger when — while standing next to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — he accused Israel of committing “50 holocausts” against the Palestinians.
Although Abbas somewhat walked back the comment, a Palestinian Authority source told the TPS that Abbas would never recover from that remark.