NEW YORK – World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder has sharply denounced Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ so-called “history lesson” to the Palestinian National Council this week, declaring: “No leader - Arab, Western, or other - should ever question the origins of the Holocaust. The Nazi genocide, history's most shocking crime against humanity, was pure evil. And anyone who suggests otherwise should be ashamed and must apologize."
Earlier, the World Jewish Congress released a statement unequivocally condemning Abbas’ “despicable and outrageous exploitation of the oldest anti-Semitic tropes in the book, going so low as to accuse Jews of bringing genocide upon themselves in some twisted attempt to disprove the Jewish historical connection to the Land of Israel.
“Abbas’ address was nothing short of a repugnant litany of propaganda and conspiracies dripping of sheer anti-Semitic incitement and vile. We urge the international community to hear these remarks for what they are, and to denounce them in the strongest possible terms, rather than allowing itself to be lured into the Palestinian leader’s façade of intentions. This kind of anti-Semitism will encourage only further violence and hatred, not peace,” the WJC said in its statement.
