Netanyahu in Holocaust furore

Experts reject Israeli leader’s claim of Palestinian role

[caption id="attachment_106490" align="alignright" width="144"] BENJAMIN NETANYAHU[/caption]

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparked uproar in Israel yesterday for suggesting that a World War 2-era Palestinian leader convinced the Nazis to adopt their Final Solution to exterminate European Jews.

Holocaust experts slammed Netanyahu’s comments as historically inaccurate and serving the interests of Holocaust deniers by diminishing the role of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Critics also said the statement amounted to incitement against modern-day Palestinians in the midst of a wave of violent unrest and Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

Speaking to a group of Jewish leaders on Tuesday, Netanyahu used a historical anecdote to illustrate his point that Palestinian incitement surrounding Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site goes back decades.

He said the World War 2-era Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Nazi sympathiser Haj Amin al-Husseini, instigated Palestinian attacks on Jews over lies that they planned to destroy the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

The hilltop compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, housing the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the gold-topped Dome of the Rock, lies at the heart of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict and competing claims over it are the source of the current round of violence.

It is the third-holiest site in Islam and the holiest site in Judaism, where the two Jewish biblical Temples once stood.

There was no evidence he had any real influence on Hitler. – The Telegraph