Abbas claims European Jews aren’t real Jews and Hitler wasn’t really antisemitic

It has been revealed this week that the leader of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, has once again claimed that European Jews (Ashkenazi Jews) are not real Jews and that Hitler’s motive for the Holocaust was not antisemitism. These lies and distortions were just the latest in a long list of Holocaust revisionism and antisemitic comments made by the Palestinian leader.

The absurd comments were made last month when Abbas spoke at the Fatah party’s Revolutionary Council. In his speech, Abbas outlined the baseless theory that European Jews are not descended from ancient Israelites but an ancient Turkish people known as the Khazars, who according to a discredited theory converted to Judaism en masse. Despite no factual evidence for this claim, Abbas is clinging to it.

“The truth that we should clarify to the world is that European Jews are not Semites,” Abbas said, according to a translation of his remarks by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “They have nothing to do with Semitism.”

“So when we hear them talk about Semitism and antisemitism, the Ashkenazi Jews, at least, are not Semites,” he added.

“They say that Hitler killed the Jews because they were Jews and that Europe hated the Jews because they were Jews. Not true. It was clearly explained that [the Europeans] fought [the Jews] because of their social role, and not their religion,” Abbas said in late August speech. “Several authors wrote about this. Even Karl Marx said this was not true. He said that the enmity was not directed at Judaism as a religion but to Judaism for its social role.”

“The [Europeans] fought against these people because of their role in society, which had to do with usury, money and so on and so forth,” he continued.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: Hitler Fought the European Jews Because of Their Usury, Money Dealings, It Was Not about Antisemitism; Jews from Arab Countries Did Not Want to Emigrate, But Were Forced to Do So by Israel #Antisemitism @PalestinePMO pic.twitter.com/k75UmycuyM

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) September 6, 2023

Abbas was trying to do a few things with these comments. He was trying to water down the Jewishness of the state of Israel by claiming that Jews who emigrated to Israel from Europe are not really Jews at all. He was trying to downplay antisemitism against Jews during the Holocaust, but he goes further as he blames the victims for the actions of their murderers rather than blaming the murderers themselves. Abbas, likely, does not want the world to pity the Jewish people for the way they were treated by the Nazis. Additionally, Abbas is trying to hide the fact that many Palestinian terror factions hate Jews in a similar way to the Nazis.

To clear things up, Hitler hated the Jews as race and characterised the effect of a Jewish presence in Germany as a “race-tuberculosis of the peoples”. The United States Holocaust Museum explains how, over time, Hitler developed a “comprehensive racist ideology”, which was driven by antisemitism.

Everything Abbas said about the Jews of Europe and Hitler only highlights the antisemitism of Abbas himself. He is distorting the facts of history to support his own antisemitic agenda.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan responded to Abbas’s claims, saying, “This is the true face of Palestinian ‘leadership’. Just as Abbas blames the Jews for the Holocaust, he also blames the Jews for all the Middle East’s issues. While he spreads this pure antisemitism he also pays Palestinian terrorists for murdering Israelis and publicly commends Palestinian terrorism.

“The world must wake up and hold Abbas and his Palestinian Authority accountable for the hatred they spew and the ensuing bloodshed it causes. There must be zero tolerance for Palestinian incitement and terror!” the envoy added.

Erdan is right, the world really needs to wake up and see Abbas for who he is, especially as this is not the first time he’s made these comments.

In 2018, Abbas made the same claim that Ashkenazi Jews were not Jewish and that Hitler didn’t hate the Jews as a people, but because of their actions. Due to international outrage at the time, Abbas apologised for this comments, but he clearly hasn’t learned from this or changed his way.

Likewise, last year Abbas claimed that Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians is the equivalent to “50 Holocausts”. The outrageous claim was made while holding a press conference in Germany, the place where Hitler orchestrated the actual Holocaust and he used the phrase when asked to apologise for the Munich Massacre, when Palestinian terrorists murdered Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, an operation that Mahmoud Abbas himself organised the finances for.

If you didn’t know already, comparing Israel’s actions to the Nazis is antisemitic according to the IHRA definition of antisemitism. The Jewish people were the main victims of the Holocaust with more than 6 million Jews being murdered at the hands of the Nazis. This was the largest genocide in world history. To claim that the victims of the Holocaust are acting like those who murdered them is antisemitism.

It seems ridiculous to say it, but we must be clear: Israel is not committing genocide against the Palestinians. Far from it. The population, life expectancy and quality of life for Palestinians is increasing every year. The Palestinian population has almost tripled since Israel’s rebirth as a nation. Meanwhile, there are still less Jews on earth today than there were before the Holocaust, such was the devastation caused by that genocide. For Abbas to claim Israel is committing a single “Holocaust” against Palestinians is repugnant, to claim Israel has carried out fifty of them is beyond absurd.

Once again Mahmoud Abbas is revealing his antisemitism and willingness to distort historic facts in order to advance his hateful agenda against Israel. Abbas is part of the problem, not the solution and it is time world governments started to realise this.