Senior U.S. State Department officials blasted the latest antisemitic rant by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Their condemnations come amid Washington’s pursuit of a complex diplomatic arrangement that could see new concessions granted to the Palestinian leadership.
Abbas had recently claimed that Hitler’s Nazi regime had carried out genocide against European Jews because of their “usury, money,” rather than their religion. “They say that Hitler killed the Jews for being 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 at a meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council on August 24, in remarks translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
The MEMRI translation circulated online yesterday, and it led to outraged responses from top State Department officials today.
Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, wrote in a Twitter post that she is “appalled” by the “hateful, antisemitic remarks” and that they “maligned the Jewish people, distorted the Holocaust, and misrepresented the tragic exodus of Jews from Arab countries.” She demanded an apology.
U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield also weighed in on the matter, saying that “this hateful rhetoric, which, in addition to being antisemitic, undermines prospects for a secure and peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians.”
Abbas’s comments, while blatantly antisemitic, are not a departure from his long-held and oft-expressed views on Jews. As recently as 2018, he made comments that replicate his most recent remarks nearly word-for-word. Even as recently as last month, before the current controversy, he drew condemnation from Lipstadt for saying that Israel carried out “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians.
Since early 2021, the Biden administration has revived U.S. assistance to Palestinians, reversing cuts by the Trump administration, and is currently in the process of integrating the Palestinian Authority into the delicate negotiations surrounding a potential normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are reportedly seeking Palestinian buy-in for any such agreement, while the White House is also eager to get the Palestinian Authority’s approval for any deal in order to seek the approval of congressional progressives for components that require a Senate vote.
On Tuesday, just a day before the English-language translation of Abbas’s latest antisemitic comments circulated, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on the phone with him, discussing the West Bank, measures to improve the lives of Palestinians, and continued U.S. support for a two-state solution. Blinken also spoke with Netanyahu that day, and the two calls come amid a flurry of diplomatic activity surrounding the normalization negotiations.
Abbas is currently slated to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York on September 21.
“Shamefully, in two weeks, President Abbas, a man who publicly blames the Jews for the Holocaust — the ultimate form of Holocaust denial — will take the stage in the very same room this resolution was adopted,” Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan wrote on Twitter, referring to a resolution condemning antisemitism that the global body passed in 2020. He lamented the fact that there has not been a bigger outcry about Abbas’s antisemitism. “The hypocrisy and double standards truly know no bounds.”