Holocaust claim sparks outrage
IF THERE is one place where the facts of the Holocaust are rarely contested, it is Israel. But public debate there is raging over comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who claimed that a key Palestinian cleric was a driving force behind Adolf Hitler’s attempt to exterminate Europe’s Jews.
Addressing the World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem, on the eve of his departure for a trip to Germany, Netanyahu said that Haj Amin Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, had planted the seed of the Holocaust during a meeting with the Fuhrer.
‘‘Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews,’’ Netanyahu said. ‘‘And Haj Amin alHusseini 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 referred to a meeting in November 1941 between Hitler and Husseini, a fierce Palestinian nationalist and Nazi sympathiser.
He said Husseini had a ‘‘central role in fomenting the Final Solution’’, the policy finalised at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 to exterminate the Jews of Europe.
The comments have caused an uproar, infuriating both Israelis and Palestinians, who charged Netanyahu with rewriting history and exploiting the Holocaust for political gain.
‘‘The son of an historian must state facts accurately,’’ opposition leader Isaac Herzog said, in a reference to the prime minister’s late father, a prominent historian.
Herzog demanded Netanyahu immediately correct what he called a ‘‘dangerous distortion of history’’ that reduced Hitler’s responsibility for Israel’s tragedy. Herzog warned that Netanyahu’s words ‘‘fall into the hands of Holocaust deniers like a ripe fruit’’, and muddy Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians.
Left-wing lawmaker Zehava Galon wrote on Facebook: ‘‘Maybe Netanyahu wants to tell this to my relatives and another 200,000 Jews murdered in Lithuania before the mufti and Hitler met?’’
Palestinians too were incensed. ‘‘It is a sad day in history when the leader of the Israeli government hates his neighbour so much . . . to absolve the most notorious war criminal in history,’’ said Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, urging Netanyahu to stop ‘‘using this human tragedy to score points for his political end.’’ Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called the remarks ‘‘appalling and degenerate’’.
Historian Tom Segev told Israel Radio that Netanyahu’s assertion was absurd. Segev said that the cleric was undoubtedly a ‘‘war criminal whose support of the Final Solution stains Palestinian history,’’ but that it was ‘‘simply baseless’’ to say he contributed to the decision.
‘‘We thought there would be no more of this after the Iran deal,’’ added Segev, referring to Netanyahu’s repeated references, in speeches against the nuclear accord, to the Holocaust and Iranian threats to annihilate Israel.
Alongside serious outrage, irreverent black-humour memes and ‘‘Hitler rants’’ poking fun at Netanyahu circulated on social media throughout the day, many viewed more widely than his original comments.