BERLIN—The German government summoned the Palestinian representative in Berlin in protest over a comment by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday accusing Israel of committing 50 Holocausts since it was founded.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stood alongside Mr. Abbas as the president made the comment, and later faced criticism for not immediately pushing back. Mr. Scholz said on Wednesday that he was “disgusted by the outrageous remarks.”
Mr. Abbas rowed back his remarks on Wednesday, in a statement saying he doesn’t deny the Holocaust ordered by German Nazis that killed six million Jews during World War II, and was referring to “crimes and massacres” carried out by Israelis since the 1948 war between Israel and the Palestinians.
The statement, published by the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, said that Mr. Abbas’s comments at the news conference with the German chancellor weren’t intended “to deny the singularity of the Holocaust that occurred in the last century” and said he “condemns it in the strongest terms.”
“What is meant by the crimes that President Mahmoud Abbas spoke about are the crimes and massacres committed against the Palestinian people since [1948]…These crimes have not stopped to this day,” the statement said.
Steffen Hebestreit, Mr. Scholz’s spokesman, said the incident cast a “dark shadow” over Germany’s relations with the Palestinian authority. He added that he regretted ending Tuesday’s joint press conference immediately after Mr. Abbas’s comments without giving Mr. Scholz a chance to respond.
Mr. Scholz arranged a call with Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid to personally explain the incident, the government spokesman said.
“For us Germans in particular, any relativization of the singularity of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable,” Mr. Scholz tweeted Wednesday. “I condemn any attempt to deny the crimes of the Holocaust.”
Mr. Abbas made the controversial remarks in response to a reporter’s question about whether the Palestinian Authority would apologize for the attack on the Israeli team at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. The nine Israeli hostages died in the attack, which ended in a botched rescue attempt by German police.
“Between 1947 and today Israel committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian settlements… 50 massacres, 50 Holocausts,” Mr. Abbas said, without answering the reporter’s question.
Mr. Hebestreit then closed the press conference and Mr. Scholz shook Mr. Abbas’s hand without responding, prompting criticism from Jewish leaders, opposition politicians and even members of the ruling coalition.
Mr. Hebestreit, who is also the spokesman of the German government, said Mr. Scholz regretted not having immediately reacted to Mr. Abbas’s accusations.
In Israel, Mr. Lapid slammed Mr. Abbas’s remarks as a moral disgrace and a monstrous lie. “History will never forgive him,” said Mr. Lapid, himself the son of a Holocaust survivor. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz called the comparison between Israeli soldiers and Nazis “despicable and false.”
“The unfortunate and unfounded comparison between the Holocaust, carried out by the Germans and their accomplices in an attempt to exterminate the Jewish people, and the Israeli military, which protects the existence of Israel in its land, the citizens of Israel and its sovereignty from brutal terrorism, is Holocaust denial,” Mr. Gantz said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said that Mr. Abbas hadn’t denied the Holocaust, but had “told the world not to shut their eyes on the massacres that were committed against the Palestinian people.”
“A massacre is a massacre, regardless of the identity of the victims or the perpetrators, and the occupation is an occupation regardless of when and how,” Mr. Shtayyeh said in Ramallah earlier Wednesday.
The memory of the Holocaust in Europe during World War II plays a central role in German politics and society. All of Germany’s postwar governments have unequivocally committed to supporting the state of Israel and fighting anti-Semitism.
Denying the Holocaust is also banned by law in Germany, as is the display of any symbol of the Nazi movement. Nonetheless, anti-Semitic incidents have steadily been rising in recent years, especially coinciding with protests against Israel’s military interventions in Gaza.
At the same time, Berlin is one of the largest donors to the Palestinian Authority and to charities in the territories, both bilaterally as well as via international organizations.
“To relativize the Holocaust, with its six million dead, is absolutely unacceptable, but to do this on German soil is inexcusable,” Mr. Hebestreit told reporters on Wednesday.
Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com
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