Abbas says Jews' behavior, not anti-Semitism, caused the Holocaust

"Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday said that the Holocaust was not caused by anti-Semitism, but by the 'social behavior' of the Jews, including money-lending.

In a long and rambling at speech in Ramallah at a rare session of the Palestinian National Council, Abbas touched on a number of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories during what he called a 'history lesson,' as he sought to prove the 3,000 year-old Jewish connection to the Land of Israel is false.

Abbas said his narrative was backed by three points made by Jewish writers and historians, the first being the theory oft-criticized as anti-Semitic that Ashkenazi Jews are not the descendants of the ancient Israelites...

He went on to claim that the Holocaust was not the result of anti-Semitism but rather of the Jews 'social behavior, [charging] interest, and financial matters.'

Abbas also claimed Israel was a European project from the start, saying that European leaders such as the United Kingdom's Lord Arthur Balfour restricted the immigration of Jews to their countries while simultaneously promoting the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel...

'Those who sought a Jewish state weren't Jews,' he said, repeating a claim he made in January when he said that the State of Israel was formed as 'a colonial project that has nothing to do with Judaism' to safeguard European interests...

The Palestinian leader has a long history of Holocaust denial. His 1982 doctoral dissertation was titled 'The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism,' and he has in the past been accused of denying the scope of the Holocaust. The dissertation reportedly claimed that the six million figure of Holocaust victims was hugely exaggerated and that Zionist leaders cooperated with the Nazis..."