RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas apologised yesterday for alleged anti-Semitic comments that drew global condemnation, reports AFP.

“If people were offended by my statement at the Palestinian National Council, especially people of the Jewish faith, I apologise to them,” he said in a statement, days after appearing to suggest Jewish behaviour, including money lending, led to their persecution in Europe.

The English-language statement added that he opposed “anti-Semitism in all its forms” and wanted “to reiterate our long held condemnation of the Holocaust, as the most heinous crime in history”.