Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks partially blaming a Palestinian leader for the Nazi idea to exterminate the Jews in World War II, sparked international uproar. Israeli historians and Holocaust experts say the statement has no base in history. Tel Aviv (dpa) - Professor Dina Porat, the chief historian of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial institute, can only shake her head in disbelief.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparked an international uproar by accusing a Palestinian religious leader between the 1920s and '40s of having played a central role in fomenting the final solution. In a November 28, 1941 Berlin meeting with Hitler, Haj Amin al-Husseini suggested to Hitler to "burn," rather than expell the Jews, so they would not come to Palestine, Netanyahu charged.
Porat's telephone has not stopped ringing. "It's complete madness," she told dpa Thursday. "We're all still breaking our heads" as to why Netanyahu made the claim. On Wednesday, Netanyahu clarified that he had had "no intention of absolving Hitler of responsibility for the mass extermination of European Jewry."
That would be "absurd," he said, but it would be "equally absurd the ignore the role played by the Mufti." His intention had been, he said, to show that "systematic incitement" against the Jews by Palestinian leaders had existed for decades. Al-Husseini already in the 1920s claimed the Jews sought to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque, he said. "Al-Aqsa Mosque stands. But the lies stands too," said Netanyahu, blaming the recent violence on rumours about non-existent Israeli plans to change the status quo at the disputed Muslim-Jewish Jerusalem holy site.
"He (Netanyahu) was trying to show that there has been a continuous hatred, from the riots of 1920, through the Holocaust and until this day," Porat said. She too believes that not only the current Israeli occupation and settlements can be blamed for the latest wave of violence. "It's much deeper," she said. "It's also religious." But she rejected out of hand Netanyahu's claim that al-Husseini suggested the final solution to Hitler, who - according to Netanyahu - at that stage had only intended to expel the Jews. "It isn't true. There's no question."
"Nothing of what Netanyahu claims the Mufti said appears" in the protocols of the 1941 al-Husseini-Hitler meeting, she said. Indeed, between 1933 and 1940, there was a policy of mass expulsion of Jews to make the German Reich "Judenrein." But by the time 1941 meeting took place, mass killings had already begun and the idea of the final solution had taken seed long before, she argued, noting Hitler had had an "obsession" with the Jews as early as World War I and including his book Mein Kampf published in 1925.
The protocols of the meeting did say that the Mufti asked Hitler to broaden the final solution to the Middle East if the Germans got there, she said. If only Netanyahu had added the phrase "Middle East" to his "negligent formulation" - he would have reduced the scandal by half, she said. "I don't want to turn the Mufti into a saint," she said. "The Mufti was a radical anti-Semite and militant ... but he didn't give the idea to Hitler."
Historian and writer Moshe Zimmermann of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem too called Netanyahu's claim baseless. He told dpa he did not believe the falsehood was deliberate, but rather the result of "ignorance and a lack of thoroughness." Leading Israeli revisionist historian and journalist Tom Segev said al-Husseini's "conduct during the war remains a shameful chapter in Palestinian history." "But there is no solid evidence to suggest that he played any role in the decision to exterminate the Jews," he wrote in The Guardian.
Al-Husseini sought from Hitler a statement of support for the Palestinian national rights, which he did not get. "Foolishly Husseini agreed to have his picture taken with Hitler, which has haunted the Palestinian cause ever since," he said. "Netanyahu's fictitious dialogue between Husseini and Hitler has come at an extremely delicate moment" of violence and surging fear and hatred, said Segev. Instead of a "fairytale" about Hitler and the Mufti, "responsible leadership and restraining language" were needed, he urged. The irony: Netanyahu's mishap comes at a time he is trying to fight misinformation about the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary.