Read the vile antisemitic comments of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas after he praised Anthony Albanese in overnight phone call
The Prime Minister's office on Tuesday revealed Mr Albanese spoke with Palestinian Authority President and leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) Mahmoud Abbas on the ongoing situation in Gaza.
In the conversation, Mr Albanese 'reiterated Australia's call for the immediate entry of aid' in Gaza as well as a 'permanent ceasefire and the release of all hostages', according to a readout of the phone call.
'Prime Minister Albanese also reinforced Australia's commitment to a two-state solution because a just and lasting peace depends upon it,' the readout said.
'President Abbas thanked Prime Minister Albanese for Australia's economic and humanitarian support.
'The leaders discussed deepening cooperation across a range of areas, and agreed to meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.'
But the same Palestinian leader who thanked Australia for its support has a grim past of shocking antisemitic rhetoric.
In a speech to members of his Fatah party in August 2023, Mr Abbas denied the Holocaust was "not about antisemitism", and instead said Hitler's horrific killing of six million Jews was because of 'their social role", which had to do with "usury, money and so on'.
In the same speech, he denied that European Jews had any lineage based in the Middle East, a widely discredited theory.
'When we hear them talk about Semitism and antisemitism — the Ashkenazi Jews, at least, are not Semites,' Mr Abbas said.
In a speech to the UN in May 2023, Mr Abbas compared Israel to the Nazis and said the country lied like Joseph Goebbels.
'Israeli and Zionist claims continue by saying that Israel made the desert bloom. As if Palestine was a desert and they made the desert bloom,' Mr Abbas said at the UN event honouring the Palestinian Nakba.
'These are lies,' he said.
'They continue to lie, like Goebbels, and they continue to lie until people believe their lies and they continue therefore their false claims by saying that Israel made the desert bloom. Palestine was never a desert.'
During a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in 2022, Mr Abbas also accused Israel of committing '50 holocausts' against Palestine since 1947.
'If we want to dig further into the past, yes, please, I have 50 massacres that were committed by Israel,' Mr Abbas said.
'Fifty massacres, 50 Holocausts, and to this day, every day, we have dead people killed by the (Israeli Defence Forces), by the Israeli army.'
While Mr Albanese secured a phone call with Mr Abbas, he is still seeking the same with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Assistant Foreign and Trade Minister Matt Thistlethwaite told Sky News on Monday the PM was seeking to urgently make contact with Mr Netanyahu to convey the Australian government's position on the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
'A phone call is being pursued,' Mr Thistlethwaite told Sky News on Monday.
It came after Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell revealed Mr Albanese was chasing a phone call with Mr Netanyahu.
Mr Abbas has led both the Palestinian Authority and PLO since 2004. He abolished the parliament in 2007 and has led without a popular mandate ever since.
His authority has also dwindled after a split with Hamas in 2007 in which the terrorist group took control of Gaza.
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