In an apparent bid to rebuild bridges with Israel days after peace talks collapsed, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Holocaust stands as “the most heinous crime” against humanity in modern times.  The announcement came out as Jews around the world marked the Yom HaShoah remembrance.

It’s the latest step in a substantial shift for Abbas, who in his doctoral dissertation – which was published as a book in 1983 – challenged the number of Jewish victims and argued that Zionists had collaborated with Nazis to propel more people to what would become Israel.  Critics called him a Holocaust denier.  But in 2011, he was again confronted with the true number of six millions Jews killed by nazi Germany , replying, “I can accept that.”

“The Palestinian people, who suffer from injustice, oppression and denied freedom and peace, are the first to demand to lift the injustice and racism that befell other peoples subjected to such crimes,” said President Abbas.  “We call on the Israeli government to seize the current opportunity to conclude a just and comprehensive peace in the region, based on the two states vision.”

Abbas’ latest statement follows his meeting with US Rabbi Marc Schneier, the founder of the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, a 25-year-old group that fosters relations between Jews and Muslims, blacks and Latinos.  Schneier says that when he suggested that Abbas make the statement, the Palestinian president agreed “before I could finish my statement.”

Mideast observers hope that Abbas’ reversal signals an end to the Holocaust denial that permeates extremist quarters of the Islamic world.  But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government insists that the Palestinian Authority needs to choose between peace with Israel and peace with Palestinian extremists.

Last week, Abbas’ Palestinian Authority ended the schism with Hamas in the West Bank, reconciling the two major Palestinian factions for the first time since 2007.  The two promised to form a unity government.  But Israel and its benefactor the United States view Hamas as a terrorist group, and Israel was especially angered, and ceased participation in the latest round of the peace process, which faces a deadline on Tuesday.