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Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit
Photo: CLEMENS BILAN / EPA
Steffen Hebestreit was massively criticized for his actions during the press conference by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The FDP politician Agnes Strack-Zimmermann questioned the suitability of Scholz's confidant as a government spokesman to SPIEGEL (read more here).
Hebestreit admitted mistakes a day later and claimed responsibility for Scholz's late reaction to Abbas' statements on the Holocaust.
The press conference ended too quickly, and the chancellor regrets not having reacted directly to Abbas' statements.
"I wasn't fast enough, attentive enough, to react," the spokesman admitted.
“That was my mistake and I have to take responsibility for it.” He very much regrets the mistake.
The Chancellor was "outraged and appalled by the words of Mr. Abbas," Hebestreit continued.
»A relativization of the Holocaust with its more than six million dead is completely unacceptable.
Doing this on German soil is inexcusable.«
On Tuesday, Abbas accused Israel of multiple "Holocausts" against the Palestinians, triggering outrage.
"Israel has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian locations since 1947 to this day," he said at a joint press conference with Scholz, adding: "50 massacres, 50 holocausts." Scholz did not immediately reply to the statement and is being criticized for it.
Hebestreit explained that it was the first direct meeting between Abbas and Scholz and that the incident would overshadow the personal relationship.
He called a trip by the chancellor to Ramallah in the foreseeable future "difficult to imagine."
At the same time, the federal government will remain in contact with the Palestinians and will not break off relations because of this "terrible scandal."
The Chancellery also summoned the head of the Palestinian representation in Berlin on Wednesday morning.
The Chancellor's foreign and security policy adviser "unmistakably conveyed the condemnation of the statements," said Hebestreit.
“The chancellor expects the Palestinian President to unreservedly recognize the singularity of the Holocaust.
His derailment yesterday casts a dark shadow on Germany's relations with the Palestinian Authority." For the federal government, it is clear: "The persecution and systematic murder of six million European Jews is a unique crime against humanity."
as/dpa
