RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas apologised on Friday over alleged anti-Semitic comments that drew global condemnation.
“If people were offended by my statement at the Palestinian National Council, especially people of the Jewish faith, I apologise to them,” he said in a statement, days after appearing to suggest Jewish behaviour, including money lending, led to their persecution in Europe.
The English-language statement added he wanted “to reiterate our long held condemnation of the Holocaust, as the most heinous crime in history”.
RE-ELECTED: Abbas was re-elected head of the Palestine Liberation Organization on Friday, as the veteran leader seeks to strengthen his control over politics in the occupied West Bank.
A four-day meeting of the PLO’s parliament, the Palestinian National Council (PNC) backed Abbas and selected a new leadership of the PLO’s executive committee.
The first regular PNC meeting in 22 years was seen as an opportunity for 82-year-old Abbas to try to increase his legitimacy. — AFP
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