The heads of the Zionist movement pushed the Nazis to kill Jews so that they would have leverage to claim the land of Palestine and establish the State of Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview with Lebanese television, parts of which were published on Monday.
During the interview, Abbas also defended his doctoral dissertation, which he completed in the 1980s at the University of Moscow, in which he claimed, among other things, that the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis is 600,000 at most and not 6 million.
"I want one, even one Jew to come and prove to me that there were no connections between the Zionist leadership and the Nazi movement before World War II," Abbas said. "I have in my possession material which would fill dozens of books to prove this claim, and in the future, I promise to publish this material."
Additionally, he said Israel agreed to the PA's request to allow Palestinian refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria to enter the West Bank. According to Abbas, Israel will allow about 150,000 Palestinian refugees into the West Bank, including the leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine Nayef Hawatmeh.
However, a diplomatic source from Jerusalem said on Monday that no formal request to the Israeli government was made to absorb Palestinian refugees from Syria, only early overtures, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected outright.
The Prime Minister's Office declined to comment.
Recent reports in Israel said the government had made an offer to take in the Palestinian refugees on condition that they sign a document giving up their right of return. According to The Associated Press, Abbas rejected the offer and said "it’s better they die in Syria than give up their right of return.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon gave an interview to the London-based A-Sharq al-Awsat published on Monday. The minister said "there is no difference between Hamas and Abbas. Hamas does not recognize the right of Israel to exist, just as Abbas does not."