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Fury grows over Bibi’s Holocaust ‘distortion’
Mufti gave Shoah idea to Hitler, says PM
October 22, 2015 11:09
Mufti gave Shoah idea to Hitler, says PM
October 22, 2015 11:09The Israeli Prime Minister has caused uproar by saying that it was only after meeting the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini, in November 1941, that Adolf Hitler decided to embark on the Final Solution.
Speaking to the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu said that when the two men met, "Hitler didn't want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews. And al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, 'If you expel them, they'll all come here (to Palestine).'"
According to Mr Netanyahu - whose father was a lauded historian - Hitler asked Al-Husseini: "What should I do with them?" He replied: "Burn them."
The Mufti of Jerusalem, one of the founding fathers of Palestinian nationalism, was widely known as a virulent antisemite and supporter of Hitler.
But this account of their meeting, which is based solely on the statement of one SS officer, has been dismissed by almost all serious historians.
Professor Dina Porat, chief historian at Yad Vashem, said: "You cannot say that it was the mufti who gave Hitler the idea to kill or burn Jews. It's not true."
Al-Husseini's influence in the Third Reich is generally regarded as limited to propaganda broadcasts in German and helping recruit Bosnian Muslims for the SS.
By the time the men met in November 1941, around a million Jews had already been murdered in shooting-pits in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.
Mr Netanyahu's words have been taken as implying that the Palestinians share some responsibility for the Shoah.
In 2012, the Israeli Prime Minister described al-Husseini as "one of the leading architects of the Final Solution".
Opposition politicians have dismissed Mr Netanyahu's assertion. Labour Party leader Isaac Herzog said that the words could be seen as trivialising the Holocaust.
"This is a dangerous historical distortion and I demand Netanyahu correct it immediately as it minimises the Holocaust, Nazism and … Hitler's part in our people's terrible disaster," said Mr Herzog.
Some commentators said that Mr Netanyahu's words revealed either that he sees the conflict between Israel and its immediate neighbours as a continuation of the Holocaust, or that he is prepared to manipulate history for political purposes.
Mr Netanyahu was due to meet german Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin this week to discuss the security situation in Israel and the wider Middle East.