Switzerland deems Mahmoud Abbas’s speech ‘unacceptable’
The Swiss government has condemned remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his opening speech to the Palestinian National Council in Ramallah on April 30.
News reports suggest that Abbas had linked the Holocaust to financial practices of Jews at the time. The remarks were condemned by the UN.
“Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas chose to use his speech at the opening of the Palestinian National Council to repeat some of the most contemptuous anti-Semitic slurs, including the suggestion that the social behaviour of Jews was the cause for the Holocaust,” said UN envoy Nikolay Mladenov on Wednesday.
The Swiss government expressed its support for Mladenov’s response.
“Switzerland remains committed to combating all forms of anti-Semitism and any attempts to trivialise or deny the Holocaust,” said the official statementExternal link on Thursday.
Apology
On Friday Abbas offered an apology. He condemned anti-Semitism and called the Holocaust the “most heinous crime in history” in a statement issued by his office in Ramallah after a four-day meeting of the Palestinian National Council (PNC).
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