Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under fire for suggesting that a World War II-era Palestinian leader convinced the Nazis to adopt their Final Solution to exterminate European Jews.
Netanyahu told a group of Jewish leaders yesterday that the Mufti of Jerusalem, Nazi sympathizer Haj Amin al-Husseini, convinced Hitler to destroy the Jews.
Holocaust experts are slamming Netanyahu’s comments as historically inaccurate. Critics say that the Wednesday’s statement amounts to incitement against modern-day Palestinians, in the midst of a wave of violent unrest and Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
“Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews. When Hitler asked al-Husseini what to do, he replied: Burn them,” Netanyahu said.
