Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen)’s Holocaust accusation against Israel is now also calling Berlin police to action. “The preliminary investigation into the initial suspicion of incitement to hatred under article 130 of the Penal Code is being processed in a specialized department of the State Criminal Police Station”, a police spokeswoman told the newspaper “Bild” (Friday).
Criminal lawyer Udo Vetter told the German newspaper: “As a result, an initial suspicion of downplaying Nazi tyranny cannot be ruled out immediately.” At a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the chancellery on Tuesday, Abbas accused Israel of several “holocausts” against the Palestinians, sparking outrage. “Israel committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian sites from 1947 to the present day,” Abbas said, adding, “50 massacres, 50 holocausts.”
Questioned by “Bild”, the Federal Foreign Office said the German government assumed that Abbas enjoyed immunity because he was in the Federal Republic as part of an “official visit”.
Augsburg criminal law expert Michael Kubiciel told the paper that it was not decisive whether Abbas was in Berlin at the invitation of the Federal Republic. Many people would accept an invitation from government agencies without enjoying immunity. It is therefore crucial that the person was in Germany “as a representative of another state”. Consequently, the question “whether or not Palestine is a state is of crucial importance,” Kubiciel said. Germany did not recognize Palestine as a state.