Serial Denier – Interview With Maurice Hirsch of Palestinian Media Watch

By Joel Rebibo

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas constantly denies the Holocaust and makes antisemitic statements. His mistake last week was making them before an international audience, Palestinian Media Watch legal expert Maurice Hirsch tells Hamodia.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas sparked outrage last week when he refused to apologize for the Munich Massacre and accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” against the Palestinians.

Abbas was in Berlin, as the Germans were preparing to mark the 50th anniversary of the murder of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes by Palestinian terrorists from the PLO-affiliated Black September. At a news conference alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, he was asked whether he would apologize for the attack. Not only did he refuse to apologize, but he went on the offensive, accusing Israel of committing repeated “Holocausts” against the Palestinians.

Scholz later expressed disgust at Abbas’ statement and called Prime Minister Yair Lapid to condemn it, and German police opened an investigation into Abbas for possible incitement to hatred. Downplaying the Holocaust is a criminal offense in Germany.

Abbas has a long track record of Holocaust denial. His 1982 doctoral dissertation, “The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism,” makes outrageous claims, including that the six million figure was exaggerated for political gain and suggesting that the real figure was one million.
In an interview with Hamodia, Hirsch discusses Holocaust denial in the Palestinian Authority and Israel’s role in enabling it.

What does it say about PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that he can’t bring himself to apologize for the Munich Massacre?

This should be nothing new to anyone who has any understanding of the Palestinians. Abbas has no desire whatsoever to condemn the Munich Massacre. It is part of the ethos of the Palestinian Authority, of the PLO, and it was his friends who carried it out. He was allegedly involved in funding the attack.
Munich and prior attacks of the PLO and different terror wings have all been adopted by the Palestinian Authority as part of the essence of Palestinian history and culture.

Makor Rishon’s editor, Chaggai Segal, noted that the question of whether Abbas would apologize for the massacre came from a German journalist, but has never been put to him by an Israeli journalist. Why is that so?

I think the question is even harsher than that. Why is it that when Abbas makes these types of statements in the presence of the German Chancellor it immediately receives international condemnation, but when he and other PA and PLO leaders make similar statements on a regular basis, even the Israeli leadership is quiet?

Never mind the Israeli press; where is the minister of defense and the Prime Minister? Why isn’t the foreign minister calling out Abbas every time he uses Holocaust terminology to define Israel and Israeli actions? These are people that we [Israel] fund. Without Israeli tax money there is no Palestinian Authority.

And yet, for some reason, the Israeli leadership ignores the outrageous antisemitism and Holocaust denial of the Palestinians on a constant basis — and it’s not one side of the political map or the other.

How do you explain it?

We simply don’t want to see what’s going on there. If we understood and put the pieces of the puzzle together, everyone might be somewhat frightened. If we realized that Abbas and the PA-PLO are vehemently antisemitic and hate Jews …

Then add the fact that they are constantly saying that their goal is to destroy Israel. They implement a policy of pay-for-slay, which includes a specific financial reward for murdering Jews. Even the Nazis didn’t do that.

The international community has basically adopted parts of the Nazi ideology — and I don’t say that easily — when they constantly call for a Palestinian state that is Judenfrei. Jews may not live in the future Palestinian state. Well, why not?

You say the settlements are illegal. I understand. But some of the settlements are 100% legal, there is no question about it. Abbas’ goal, his ideology, is that the Palestinian state will be an Arab-only, Jew-free state.

Benny Gantz defends his meetings with Abbas as legitimate because they advance security cooperation. His message is that Abbas may not be a nice guy, but he protects Jews. How does that fit in with what you’re saying?

Gantz … is simply not telling the truth.

First, everyone knows that the security coordination is more of a benefit to the Palestinian Authority and Fatah than it is to Israel. The Fatah mechanism coordinates with Israel the arrest of Fatah’s enemy, Hamas, which also happens to be Israel’s enemy. But they’re not passing on information to defend Jews and are in no way desirous of security coordination. They would rather have Israel do their dirty work. Everyone who has anything to do with the security cooperation mechanism knows that to be the truth, and Gantz certainly knows that to be the truth.

Second, in 2020, the Palestinian Authority cut off all ties with Israel and stopped security coordination for six months. In those six months we saw no rise in terrorism.

It’s easy to throw the word around — security cooperation — as a justification for continuing this almost blind support of the Palestinian Authority, but truth be told, I think reality has shown that it is simply not necessary. It’s nice to have — like an umbrella on a sunny day — but using it as an excuse to ignore all of the malfeasance of the Palestinian Authority is something that is going to turn around and bite us.

Abbas backed down a bit from his statement on “50 Holocausts,” saying that he had not intended to deny the “singularity of the Holocaust.” You’re saying it doesn’t come from the heart?

It doesn’t come from the heart at all. He says these [antisemitic] things every day, but once he was caught — and caught by the Germans — that made it difficult for him. One has to take into account that the Germans are massive donors to the Palestinian cause. The German government widely funds most of the violently anti-Israel Israeli NGOs, the same organizations that are pushing the idea that Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing.

So why were they upset with Abbas for his statement?
The Germans and Abbas care because he was caught making these statements at a press conference, not understanding that the world is disgusted by those types of comments made in international forums. If you want to talk antisemitism and Holocaust denial, do it at home; that the world is happy to accept and even to fund. But don’t talk about it outside.

What is the Palestinian Authority’s attitude toward the Holocaust? Is it taught in schools?
It’s not taught at all. It isn’t mentioned. Ever. It’s unbelievable. You’re just erasing any type of acceptance that there was an event called the Holocaust. It doesn’t exist.

And Israel doesn’t make a fuss over that?
Israel, unfortunately, doesn’t even tell them to stop glorifying and actively promoting and inciting terror in the schoolbooks, so we’re definitely not going to be telling them to add content which would require them to recognize that Jews are a people, are human beings.

There is a video that Palestinian Media Watch obtained showing how Abbas’ Fatah party refers to the Holocaust. They say that the Jews separated themselves off into ghettos because of their loathing of other people. They say the Jews conspired among themselves how to make money from the death of other Jews.
It’s an unbelievably antisemitic video that is simply disgusting. And no one cares. The world does not care.