Abbas slams Netanyahu, seeks 'protection' for Palestinians

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday called for international protection for the Palestinians, saying the human rights situation under Israeli occupation is the worst it has ever been, and accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of exploiting the Holocaust to attack the Palestinians. The fiery speech by Abbas to a special session of the UN-backed Human Rights Council in Geneva threatened to stir up new tensions with Israel, just as US-led efforts to calm the situation in the region are getting under way. Abbas criticised Netanyahu for comments a week earlier suggesting that a World War II-era Palestinian religious leader had persuaded the Nazis to carry out a policy that exterminated 6 million Jews.