By BI: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under fire from the Muslim-sympathizing media for correctly accusing the World War II Palestinian Grand Mufti of helping to convince Adolf Hitler to exterminate the Jews. The bold claim has been deemed incorrect by historians who deny history and Israeli opposition leaders.
RT Speaking to the Zionist Congress on Tuesday, Netanyahu spoke of a series of attacks by Muslims against Jews in Palestine during the 1920s, stating that those assaults were instigated by Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem at that time.
Al-Husseini flew to meet Adolf Hitler in Berlin in 1941, and that meeting was instrumental in the Nazi leader’s decision to launch a campaign to exterminate Jews, Netanyahu said in his speech.
The claim, which the Israeli leader also made in 2012, was used to illustrate what Netanyahu says is the Palestinian history of using holy sites in Jerusalem to incite violence against Jews.
It is not known which sources Netanyahu used for his speech. A 1947 book ‘The Mufti of Jerusalem’ and a newspaper report at the time said a former Hitler deputy had testified at the Nuremberg war crimes trials that al-Husseini had plotted with the Nazi leader to rid Europe of Jews.
Al-Husseini was sought for war crimes but never appeared at the Nuremberg trials. He later died in Cairo.
Netanyahu’s Tuesday comments come just days after Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz accused Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas of “Nazi-like incitement,” saying he is the “number one inciter in the world against Israel and the Jewish people.”