PMW Bulletin
August 26, 2015
Abbas presents Holocaust as something Jews "say":

"They say they made sacrifices in World War II -we respect what they say"

Abbas adds libel:
Israel doing to Palestinians what Nazis did to Jews: "We must not be a
victim of the victim"
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=15590

by Itamar Marcus
p:+972 2 625 4140 e: pmw@palwatch.org
f: +972 2 624 2803 w: www.palwatch.org

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in a speech before a delegation of Polish
journalist in Ramallah, referred to Jewish suffering in World War II as a
Jewish or Israeli claim that he is willing to respect:

"They say they made sacrifices in World War II - we respect what they say."

He made this statement in the context of libeling Israel, as the second half
of his statement accuses Israel of doing to the Palestinians what the Nazis
did to the Jews:

"They should not treat us the way they were treated [by the Nazis]. We must
not be a victim of the victim. I did not do anything bad to him."

For video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjYyi4i1tE8

It is striking that in his statement Abbas presents the Holocaust not as
historical fact to be acknowledged but as something "Jews say" which he is
willing to "respect." Additionally, his choice of terminology to describe
the genocide of 6 million Jews completes his trivialization of the
Holocaust:

"... they made sacrifices in World War II."

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that Holocaust denial and
trivialization are repeated regularly by the PA.

Abbas wrote a book in 1984, called "The Other Side: the Secret Relationship
Between Nazism and Zionism," which is currently still available for reading
on Abbas' personal website, that accuses the Zionist leadership of
collaboration with the Nazis. Quotes from Abbas' book appear below.

This was Abbas's full statement to the Polish journalists that related to
World War II:

"If they [Jews] say that they made sacrifices in World War II, and we
respect what they say, they should not treat us the way they were treated.
We must not be a victim of the victim. I did not do anything bad to him. I
just want him to follow the law. I want a state on the 1967 borders."
[Official PA TV, Aug. 23, 2015]

Click to view
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=806&fld_id=806&doc_id=15588

The following is from Mahmoud Abbas book "The Other Side: the Secret
Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism." The book was recently translated
into Hebrew by Eddy Cohen:

"We find that Zionists believe in the purity of the Jewish race, as Hitler
believed in the purity of the Aryan race. Zionism calls to find a
fundamental final solution to the Jewish question in Europe by immigration
to Palestine. Hitler also called for this and implemented it... Antisemitism
is persecution and oppression, and this is definitely something desirable to
the Zionist movement. The conclusion from these ideas is that a green light
was given [by the Zionist leaders] to every racist in the world, first and
foremost Hitler and Nazism, to do as they wish to the Jews, as long as it
guarantees individual immigration to Palestine. And it was not enough for
the Zionist movement to give a green light - rather it even asked for more
victims, in order to be comparable to the victims of other peoples in the
war. This was because it [the Zionist leaders] thought that raising the
number of victims would increase its rights at the end of the war, when the
bounty is divided."