{{Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the Nazi Holocaust “the most heinous crime” against humanity in modern times in a statement released on Sunday, an apparent bid to build bridges with Israel days after troubled peace talks collapsed.}}
Abbas has condemned the mass killings of Jews in World War Two before and challenged allegations, stemming from a 1983 book he authored, that he is a Holocaust denier.
But the timing of the publication of his latest comments gave them extra significance, a day after he signaled he remained committed to the peace talks and said a future Palestinian unity government would recognize Israel.
The message, in Arabic and English, coincided with Israel’s annual remembrance day for the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust, and included an expression of sympathy for the families of the victims.
Israel suspended U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians on Thursday in response to Abbas’s unexpected unity pact with the rival Islamist group Hamas – a movement which has vowed to destroy Israel.
On Sunday, Israeli leaders showed little interest in responding to Abbas’ apparent olive branch.
Abbas, according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, made the comments at a meeting with an American rabbi last week.
“What happened to the Jews in the Holocaust is the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era,” Abbas told Rabbi Marc Schneir, president of the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which promotes relations between racial and ethnic communities.
The Palestinian people, he added, “are the first to demand to lift the injustice and racism that befell other peoples subjected to such crimes”.
{agencies}
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