Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu creates uproar with claim Palestinians gave Hitler idea for Holocaust
In explaining the current surge in violence in Israel and the West Bank, Israel's leader said the mufti played a central role in fomenting thethe Nazis' plan to exterminate the Jews
There is no Israeli orator tougher and more pugnacious than Benjamin Netanyahu, but even his allies expressed bewilderment – and shock – on Wednesday after the prime minister asserted that a Palestinian religious leader gave Adolf Hitler the idea to annihilate the Jews.
In a speech on Tuesday evening, Netanyahu sought to explain the current surge in violence in Israel and the West Bank by reaching for historical antecedents. He said Jews living in what was then British Palestine faced many attacks in 1920, 1921 and 1929 – all instigated by the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who allied himself with the Nazis during the second world war.
Then Netanyahu dropped his bombshell. He said: “Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time; he wanted to expel the Jews. And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, ‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here.’ ‘So what should I do with them?’ he asked. He said ‘Burn them.’”
Netanyahu, the son of a historian, said the mufti played “a central role in fomenting the Final Solution”, as the Nazis termed their plan to exterminate the Jews.
The remarks were made in a speech to the World Zionist Congress about “the 10 big lies” told by Palestinians and their backers.
