NEW YORK- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has praised the Anti-Defamation for denouncing a Palestinian Authority official for minimizing the Holocaust—a surprise move by the ADL, since just eight days ago, the ADL publicly praised the appointment of Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister of the PA, even though Abbas denies the Holocaust and recently called for the murder of Israelis in some parts of the country.

Abbas, the new PA prime minister, is the author of a book called The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and the Zionist Movement, in which he stated that the Nazis may actually have killed “only a few hundred thousand” Jews, not six million; that Zionist leaders “give permission to every racist in the world, led by Hitler and the Nazis, to treat Jews as they wish, so long as it guarantees immigration to Palestine. Zionism not only gave this permission but was seeking more victims in order to maintain equality with the sacrifices of other nations during the war”; and that “the interest of the Zionist movement is to inflate this figure [from several hundred thousand to 6 million] so that their gains will be greater.” (Jerusalem Post, Jan. 26, 1995)

A February 2003 poll by McLaughlin & Associates found that 64% of Americans believe that “world leaders should refuse to meet with Abbas and treat him the same as others who deny or minimize the Holocaust.” Only 20% of Americans believe that world leaders should meet with Abbas.

In a March 19, 2003 press release, the ADL stated that the appointment of Abbas “offers hope that the PA may finally be serious about stopping the ‘violence’”. The ADL’s press release did not mention Abbas’s Holocaust-denial nor Abbas’s recent call for the continuing murder of Israelis in Judea-Samaria, Gaza and eastern Jerusalem.

But in a March 27, 2003 press release, the ADL condemned as “offensive and outrageous” a statement made by the PA’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Nabil Ramlawi, who had accused Israel of “genocide against Palestinians” and referred to “New Zionist Nazism.”

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein, who is a child of Holocaust survivors, lost most of his relatives in the Holocaust, and was himself born in a Displaced Persons Camp in Germany, said: “All those who defame the Jewish people and the Holocaust should be denounced and ostracized, whether it is the PA’ representative in Geneva or its prime minister, in Ramallah.”

The ZOA president added that the ADL’s statement that the appointment of Abbas “offers hope that the PA may finally be serious about stopping the violence” makes no sense in view of the fact that Abbas recently called for the murder of Israelis in some parts of the country:

Abbas told the Arab newspaper Alsharq Al-Awsat on March 3, 2003: “We didn’t talk about a break in the armed struggle … It is our right to resist. The Intifada must continue and it is the right of the Palestinian People to resist and use all possible means in order to defends its presence and existence. I add and say that if the Israelis come to your land in order to erect a settlement then it is your right to defend what is yours.”

The interviewer then asked: “Including using arms?” Abbas replied: “All means and arms as long as they are coming to your home, as this is the right to resist. The restriction applies only to ‘Shahada -Seeking’ [suicide] operations and going out to attack in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. There is no justification to go out [of the territories] to fight the army.”

Thus Abbas supports murdering all Jews in the territories, both soldiers and civilians whom he defines as “settlers”—that is, Jews who reside in (or happen to be visiting) Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Golan, the Old City section of Jerusalem (where the Jewish Quarter, Western Wall and Temple Mount are situated), and Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Gilo, Ramat Eshkol, French Hill, and the Hebrew University campus. The Judea-Samaria communities include such major cities as Efrat, Ariel, and Ma’ale Adumim.

According to Abbas’s definition, a Jew praying at the Western Wall would be a legitimate target for Palestinian Arab violence.