Israeli historians and politicians joined Wednesday the wave of criticism that is denouncing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for saying it was a Palestinian, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, who gave Hitler the idea of annihilating European Jews during World War II.
It was in a speech to the to the Zionist Congress on Tuesday that Netanyahu said: “Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews.â€
The prime minister then said that the mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, had protested to Hitler that “they’ll all come here,†referring to Palestine. “ ‘So what should I do with them?’ †Mr. Netanyahu quoted Hitler as asking Mr. Husseini. “He said, ‘Burn them.’ â€
Prof. Meir Litvak, a historian at Tel Aviv University, called the speech “a lie†and “a disgrace.†Prof. Moshe Zimmermann, a specialist of German history at Hebrew University, said, “With this, Netanyahu joins a long line of people that we would call Holocaust deniers.â€, writes New York Times.
