German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Israel's prime minister on Thursday that any attempt to downplay or deny the Holocaust was unacceptable.

"Our position is clear: we condemn any attempt to deny or downplay the importance of the Holocaust," Scholz tweeted after a phone call with Yair Lapid.

The German leader had come under fire for remaining silent rather than rejecting  remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a joint press conference Tuesday.

Abbas accused Israel of committing "50 Holocausts" against Palestinians in response to a question about the upcoming 50th anniversary of the attack on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics by Palestinian militants.

The following day, Scholz expressed his disgust that Abbas had diminished the singularity of the Holocaust, in which Nazi Germany murdered more than 6 million Jews. A government spokesperson took the blame for ending the joint news conference before Scholz could respond.

What Scholz told Lapid

On Thursday, Scholz told the Israeli leader: "The comments by President Abbas in Berlin were intolerable and completely unacceptable to (the chancellor) and the entire German government."

"The chancellor emphasized that he sharply condemns any attempt to deny or relativize the Holocaust,'' said Scholz's spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit.

Lapid's office said he thanked Scholz "both as the prime minister of Israel, and as the son of Holocaust survivors."

The two leaders also agreed to meet in Berlin "soon," the German leader's spokesman said in a statement.

Abbas walks back comment

Postwar German governments have long argued that the word Holocaust refers to a unique crime: the systematic murder of millions of people, including 6 million Jews, by Nazi Germany.

Abbas' remarks drew outrage in Europe, the United States and Israel, where Lapid called them "not only a moral disgrace, but a monstrous lie."

In response to the outcry, Abbas issued a statement calling the Holocaust "the most heinous crime in modern human history."

lo/aw (AP, Reuters)