Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued an apology on Friday over remarks that were perceived as anti-Semitic and which drew international outrage. "If people were offended by my statement at the Palestinian National Council, especially people of the Jewish faith, I apologize to them," he said in a statement, days after appearing to suggest Jewish behavior, including money lending, led to their persecution in Europe. The English-language statement added he wanted "to reiterate our long-held condemnation of the Holocaust, as the most heinous crime in history". "We condemn anti-Semitism in all its forms and confirm our commitment to the two-state solution, and to (living) side by side in peace and security." The apology was not well-received by Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who was quick to reject it via Twitter. Abbas "is a pathetic Holocaust denier who wrote a doctorate about Holocaust denial and then a book about Holocaust denial," he said, citing past works that had already led to accusations of anti-Semitism. "His apology is not accepted." During a 90-minute speech before the Palestinian National Council in Ramallah on the Holocaust on Monday, Abbas said: "From the 11th century until the Holocaust that took place in Germany, those Jews -- who moved to Western and Eastern Europe -- were subjected to a massacre every 10 to 15 years. But why did this happen? They say it is because we are Jews.” He then cited "three books" written by Jews as evidence that "hostility against Jews is not because of their religion, but rather their social function," adding he meant "their social function related to banks and interest". The comments drew global anger, with the United States, United Nations, European Union and others criticizing them, as well as Israeli leaders. "Apparently the Holocaust denier is still a Holocaust denier," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday on Twitter. Netanyahu regularly argues that the reason there is not peace between Israel and the Palestinians is the lack of a real partner for them to negotiate with. He has called on Abbas to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians point out Israel continues to expand settlements throughout the West Bank, while maintaining a crippling blockade of Gaza. A veteran member of Fatah, the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s dominant faction, Abbas served for decades as a loyal deputy of his predecessor, Yasser Arafat. He assumed the leadership of Fatah, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority after Arafat died in 2004 and was re-elected as chairman of the PLO’s Executive Committee on Friday. In 1982 Abbas obtained a doctorate in history at the Moscow Institute of Orientalism in the then-Soviet Union. His dissertation, entitled “The Secret Relationship between Nazism and the Zionist Movement” - to which Lieberman referred - drew widespread criticism from Jewish groups.