tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/grand-mufti-of-jerusalem-21975/articlesGrand Mufti of Jerusalem – The Conversation2017-08-15T12:14:27Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/819192017-08-15T12:14:27Z2017-08-15T12:14:27ZA major uprising in Jerusalem and beyond is just a few missteps away<p>The last thing the Middle East needs is a major conflagration in Israel-Palestine – but a summer crisis in Jerusalem made it clear that in the right circumstances, it really could happen.</p>
<p>The crisis began in the early hours of July 14. Three young Arab Israelis broke into the Haram al-Sharif, which Jews call the Temple Mount, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/14/shooting-attack-jerusalem-temple-mount-friday-prayers">killed two Israeli-Druze police officers</a>; they were pursued inside the holy place and shot dead nearby. In a highly unusual and controversial move, the Israeli government responded by shutting down the holy compound to Muslim worshippers gathering for Friday prayers. The shrine was reopened to Muslims the following Sunday, but with new metal detectors and additional “smart cameras” installed. </p>
<p>The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed that the status quo at the site <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=netanyahu+status+quo+temple+mount&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS685US685&oq=netanyahu+status+quo+temple+mount&aqs=chrome..69i57.3934j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">would be preserved</a>, but his reassurances weren’t enough. </p>
<p>Many Palestinians saw Israel’s unilateral decision to set up metal detectors as part of an <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/plo-warns-against-danger-of-temple-mount-judaization/">attempt</a> to “Judaise” the site, and soon a popular uprising was underway. Muslim worshippers gathered outside the site’s entrances to defend what they called “al-Aqsa under threat”. In keeping with the orders of the city’s Islamic leaders, the <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-temple-mount-tumult-the-who-what-and-why-of-its-waqf-rulers/">Muslim Waqf</a> and the <a href="https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2017/7/15/grand-mufti-of-jerusalem-freed-from-israeli-custody">Grand Mufti of Jerusalem</a>, they refused to enter the compound through the metal detectors, and organised collective prayers in defiance of what they saw as an Israeli encroachment on Islam’s third holiest site.</p>
<p>When Israel finally removed the security apparatus from the holy site and everything supposedly returned to normal, the Waqf and the Mufti <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/07/islamic-waqf-prayers-al-aqsa-170727071457738.html">lifted their boycott</a>, encouraging Muslims to worship at al-Aqsa again. Thousands of Palestinians <a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/there-no-sweeter-feeling-palestinians-hail-victory-al-aqsa-747348862">hailed the announcement</a> as “a victory from God” over the “Israeli occupier”.</p>
<p>This might sound like a disaster averted. But while the crisis might have been temporarily resolved, it proved that the risk of serious violence and instability is still very much there.</p>
<p>Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount has been <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/03/magazine/israel-s-y2k-problem.html">called</a> “the single most explosive piece of real estate on the planet”. It sits in the heart of a holy city that’s claimed as a capital city by both sides in one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. </p>
<p>Tensions at the site have ignited hostilities before most notoriously in 2000 at the outset of the Second Intifada, also known as the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3677206.stm">al-Aqsa Intifada</a>. In October 2015, the idea that al-Aqsa was falling into Zionist hands was one of the given justifications for a wave of <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-idUSKBN17P0G9">stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks</a> on Israeli police and civilians. </p>
<p>Given this history, there’s nothing truly unprecedented about the most recent crisis. But the sheer impact of the protests it sparked took everyone by surprise, including political leaders on all sides.</p>
<h2>Caught in the middle</h2>
<p>As far as the Israeli authorities are concerned, the situation has now returned to normal, but the state’s behaviour during the crisis should worry everyone concerned.</p>
<p>Netanyahu’s government framed the July 14 attacks as a security issue, and put the sacred compound under strict surveillance. Despite the risks of escalation attached to more or less anything Palestinian leaders perceive as a change to the status quo, Israel still installed its metal detectors and cameras unilaterally, surely reinforcing Palestinian anxieties about a supposed Zionist takeover of the holy site.</p>
<p>Netanyahu knows all too well how dangerous sudden change can be, and only a minority of national-religious politicians in his ruling coalition really want to see unrestrained Jewish control over the sacred site. But he’s in a bind: only with the support of these powerful national-religious figures can he hold his government together, and it’s those same allies’ growing activism that usually triggers dangerous clashes at the sacred site. </p>
<p>Sure enough, Netanyahu’s decision to withdraw Israel’s security measures at the holy site enraged his hard-right coalition partners, not least his minister of education, <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.574692">Naftali Bennett</a>, who’s expected to challenge him at the next election.</p>
<p>As for Palestinian leaders, the events of July showed how much the dynamics on their side have changed in recent years.</p>
<p>The president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, initially <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Israel-to-reopen-Temple-Mount-following-attack-treads-carefully-amid-heightened-tensions-499798">condemned the assailants’ actions</a>. But once Israel installed its metal detectors, he had to change tack, offering <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/07/27/27-jul-17-world-view-israel-braces-for-new-day-of-rage-at-al-aqsa-mosque-in-jerusalem-on-friday/">words of support</a> to the Muslim worshippers refusing to enter the compound: “We support you and are proud of you … This is the appropriate reaction to anybody hurting our holy sites.”</p>
<p>Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri took a similar tone, <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.801344">calling</a> the attack in Jerusalem “a natural reaction to Israeli terror and the desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque” by the Jewish settlers. As Zuhri, that reaction would have also proved that all Palestinians are “united” in resistance. </p>
<p>Yet for all their grandiose rhetoric, Fatah and Hamas probably had little if any influence over what was happening in the Old City and East Jerusalem. Since at least the Second Intifada, Palestinians living in these areas have steadily become isolated from leaders in Ramallah and Gaza. Given the success of their recent protests, they may well start gearing up for a <a href="http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/middle-east/israeli-palestinian-relations/hamas-leader-calls-muslims-to-defend-al-aqsa-29838">protracted struggle</a> to “defend” al-Aqsa, and they can do it without direction from either Fatah or Hamas.</p>
<h2>Beyond borders</h2>
<p>If they do, the ramifications could be seismic. Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount is more than a touchstone of the Palestinian struggle for national self-determination; it’s a concern for millions of faithful Muslims in the Middle East and beyond, and anything that happens there is almost guaranteed to have repercussions well beyond Israel and Palestine.</p>
<p>Sure enough, when the recent crisis took hold, local and international news outlets reported that several Arab leaders were variously <a href="https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/151077-170722-jordan-and-egypt-seek-to-persuade-israel-to-remove-temple-mount-metal-detectors">working to defuse it</a> and to <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.802834">mute</a> reports on it in their own countries. They did so out of fear that the Palestinian uprising could spread to other Muslim countries and spark something like an another “Arab Spring”. </p>
<p>A new intifada centred on such a powerful symbol of Muslim identity would be more than a local struggle; it could start a wave of Islamic solidarity and protest across the Middle East, and force repressive, unjust Arab regimes into violent confrontation with their own citizens.</p>
<p>For now, Israel and the Palestinian Authorities are at a diplomatic impasse, and the international community still isn’t seriously engaged with the conflict’s central symbolic problems. As the <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Palestinians-want-US-to-back-two-states-and-ask-Israel-to-halt-settlement-building-502353">Israeli settlement project</a> continues, Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount is still a dangerous flashpoint – and a wave of unrest and violence across both Palestine and Israel proper is still on the cards.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlo Aldrovandi receives funding from Trinity College Dublin - Irish Research Council </span></em></p>What caused the latest crisis at the world’s most explosive piece of real estate, and could it happen again?Carlo Aldrovandi, Assistant Professor in International Peace Studies, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/497592015-10-27T05:47:03Z2015-10-27T05:47:03ZNetanyahu’s narrative: how the Israeli PM is rewriting history to suit himself<p>What more can be said about Netanyahu’s flagrant Holocaust revisionism? Rainer Schultze <a href="https://theconversation.com/netanyahu-the-grand-mufti-and-the-holocaust-why-it-is-important-to-get-the-historical-facts-right-49617">summarised</a> the incident nicely. By claiming the Palestinian mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, inspired Hitler to plan the Holocaust, Netanyahu was engaging in blatant historical revisionism for the sake of contemporary politics. It certainly is worth repeating Netanyahu’s claim:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews. And Haj Amin al-Husseini 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.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Recently there has been renewed activity in the project of accrediting this alternative historical narrative. Haaretz’s Chemi Shalev <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.682144">dug out</a> a reference-laden article by <a href="http://jcpa.org/article/palestinians-arabs-and-the-holocaust/">Joseph Spoerl</a> on the website of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs which attempts to link Husseini with Nazi ideology. Similar accounts have been published in Hebrew by right-leaning Israeli think tanks <a href="http://mida.org.il/category/%D7%9E%D7%A0%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%AA%D7%99/english-archive/">Mida</a>, which defines itself as “conservative-liberal” and the <a href="http://www.forumkedem.org.il/english/about-us/">Kedem Forum</a>, an organisation specialising in public diplomacy.</p>
<p>Michael Sells has traced the narrative of the mufti as the progenitor of the idea of the Holocaust in an excellent <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jore.12119/full">academic article</a> and demonstrated that the claim is baseless. Nevertheless, as commentators have pointed out, the script that assigns Palestinian blame for the Holocaust serves a political purpose. It re-narrates the history of the Holocaust as a product of a single Palestinian historical figure. In doing so, it feeds into older and more established myths.</p>
<h2>Amalek the supervillain</h2>
<p>In Jewish tradition, “Amalek” is an abstraction that refers to eternal enemies of the Jews. It comes from <a href="http://biblehub.com/niv/exodus/17.htm">Exodus 17</a>: “The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.” As Jeffrey Goldberg demonstrated, the myth of <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2009/05/the-abuse-of-amalek/18084/">Amalek</a> is often mobilised to string the Palestinian into a history of judeophobic persecution “from generation to generation”. The evil mufti narrative makes the historical figure of the mufti an almost ahistorical and mythical personification of Amalek and the very spirit of Israeli historiography.</p>
<p>The mufti, Netanyahu explained in his speech, was around to instigate attacks in 1920, 1921 and 1929 – and, while Netanyahu did not mention the full charge sheet against the mufti, the mufti is usually also blamed for the flight of Jews from Arab countries following the establishment of the state of Israel, as Spoerl <a href="http://jcpa.org/article/palestinians-arabs-and-the-holocaust/">explained</a>: “The mufti’s call for murder and ethnic cleansing would not fall on deaf ears. After 1948, 850,000 Jews were violently driven from Arab lands, stripped of their property and passports”.</p>
<p>While the meaning of the evil mufti narrative and its relation with existing myths and attitudes in Israeli and Jewish life is worthy of a discussion, what is also interesting is the interpretation some Netanyahu supporters have given to it after the fact, arguing that Netanyahu deliberately lied in order to bring the world’s attention to the little-known history of Palestinian complicity with the Nazis. </p>
<p>Elli Fischer <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-brilliance-of-bibis-big-lie-a-dramatization/">wrote in the Times of Israel</a> about: “The brilliance of Bibi’s big lie”, while Carolyne Glick <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Column-One-Crazy-like-a-fox-429841">wrote in her article in the Jerusalem Post</a> that: “For most Westerners, this is the first they’ve heard of the fact that the Palestinians’ George Washington was a Nazi war criminal.” </p>
<p>Of course, casting Husseini as the “Palestinian George Washington” is almost as much a fabrication as the “big lie” itself. But the idea that Netanyahu made these false assertions in order to introduce audiences to their context, which is implicit in Jeffrey Herf’s account as well, who <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-husseini-and-the-historians/">wrote</a> that: “Netanayhu’s comments about Husseini’s lasting impact on Palestinian political culture are very much on the mark” (Netanyahu made no such comments, his accusation was direct: “he said 'burn them’”), is as revealing as the content of his claims.</p>
<p>There is a philosophical construct known as “Wittgenstein’s ladder”, which was popularised by the late Terry Pratchett as “lie-to-children”. It means that in order to get across a complicated idea, sometimes you need to use an explanation that is actually wrong but which helps a child – or anyone learning about anything complex – build an understanding of that issue. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99669/original/image-20151026-18424-14qvhga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99669/original/image-20151026-18424-14qvhga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99669/original/image-20151026-18424-14qvhga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99669/original/image-20151026-18424-14qvhga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99669/original/image-20151026-18424-14qvhga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99669/original/image-20151026-18424-14qvhga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99669/original/image-20151026-18424-14qvhga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jerusalem’s grand mufti, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, with Adolf Hitler in 1941.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1987-004-09A / Heinrich Hoffmann / CC-BY-SA 3.0</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is the approach Netanyahu’s supporters have taken. Netanyahu has deliberately taken a public blow, knowingly telling a lie, in order to focus his audience in what he considers to be the larger truth of historical Palestinian complicity in the persecution of Jews. While this argument is advanced as a desperate defence over a pretty clear statement, it actually neatly frames Netanyahu’s recent approach to politics. </p>
<h2>Lying to children</h2>
<p>When asked by the BBC’s Lyse Doucet last week about the chances of renewing negotiations, Netanyahu <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p035cj4w">responded</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Are we living in the same planet Lyse? … Right now, as we speak, we can meet I have no problem with that … I’m willing to meet him he’s not willing to meet me – and you ask me about the resumptions of negotiations. Come on, get with the programme. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The condescending attitude and the crystal clear platitude clash with his statements from the previous day, when he compared the pronouncements of Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to those of <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.681499">Islamic State</a>. Having asserted his willingness to engage in negotiations Netanyahu tells Doucet: “These people don’t want negotiations and they’re inciting for violence, direct your questions to them.” </p>
<p>But how convincing is Netanyahu’s willingness to negotiate with Abbas? Especially given that the education minister, Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home party, <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/bennett-government-doesnt-back-pm-on-palestinian-state/">said</a> that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When we talk about two states – it gives them hope. The government isn’t talking about a Palestinian state and therefore what the prime minister says is his own opinion and is not the position of the government of Israel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The tensions within the Israeli government, which is reliant on a parliamentary majority of one, are simply too great to allow for any real change of policy towards the Palestinians. This policy was reiterated by Netanyahu recently when he <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.682374">announced</a> that: “We need to control all of the territory for the foreseeable future.” </p>
<p>What was that about wanting to talk? Just like Netanyahu’s latest announcement – a counter-terror <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-developing-app-to-call-for-help-in-a-terror-attack-430086">app</a> – it’s a trick.</p>
<p>As for the Holocaust revisionism itself, sadly, it is not. The incoming Israeli ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/world/middleeast/netanyahu-saying-palestinian-mufti-inspired-holocaust-draws-broad-criticism.html?_r=0">referred reporters inquiring about Netanyahu’s pronouncements concerning the mufti</a> to a 1993 book that details the mufti’s relations with the Third Reich. Its author is Benjamin Netanyahu.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49759/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yoav Galai does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Israeli PM’s ‘big lie’ about Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was of a piece with Netanyahu’s history of making false and misleading claims.Yoav Galai, PhD candidate in the School of International Relations, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/496172015-10-23T14:53:10Z2015-10-23T14:53:10ZNetanyahu, the Grand Mufti and the Holocaust: why it is important to get the historical facts right<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99369/original/image-20151022-8013-20jv53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, met with Adolf Hitler in 1941.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_al-Husseini#/media/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1987-004-09A,_Amin_al_Husseini_und_Adolf_Hitler.jpg">Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1987-004-09A, Amin al Husseini und Adolf Hitler" by Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1987-004-09A / Heinrich Hoffmann</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In a speech to the <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.681525">World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem</a> on October 20, the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Haj Amin al-Husseini, former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, of “inspiring the Holocaust” and urging Hitler to exterminate the Jewish people.</em></p>
<p><em>Netanyahu then explained that he wanted “to show that the father of the Palestinian nation wanted to destroy Jews even without occupation.” These comments led to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/21/netanyahu-under-fire-for-palestinian-grand-mufti-holocaust-claim">widespread condemnation and outrage</a>. But who was al-Husseini, and what was his role and involvement in the Holocaust? Rainer Schulze sets the record straight.</em></p>
<p><strong>Who was the Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini?</strong> </p>
<p>Born in the mid-1890s, and appointed Mufti of Jerusalem in 1921 (Grand Mufti in 1922), <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://t3.gstatic.com/images%3Fq%3Dtbn:ANd9GcQfQ6FvdKcDD9Y7r2MWOqyVIbfzxXUNsCZP3Gpf4PWsq0YgJtXD&imgrefurl=http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Grand_Mufti.html?id%3Ds-CLz1OvWs0C%26source%3Dkp_cover&h=680&w=510&tbnid=31Xkm8mwJ0nUNM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=119&usg=__LlkfV-EMwqxarXxnXFd_s49MV5M=&docid=REpsfvH_q7JzeM&itg=1">Haj Amin al-Husseini was</a> one of the most prominent nationalist Arab figures in Palestine during the time of the British Mandate. He opposed both British rule in Palestine, and the Jewish-Zionist dream of a Jewish homeland in the region, aiming instead to establish a pan-Arab federation or state with himself as the spiritual leader. </p>
<p>His political activism led him to organise and support protests against Jewish immigration and Jewish settlements, which peaked in the <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/charles-townshed/first-intifada-rebellion-palestine-1936-39">1936-39 Arab revolt in Palestine</a>. In 1937, in order to evade arrest, he fled Palestine and took up residence first in the French Mandate of Lebanon and then in Iraq. In October 1941, he escaped to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.</p>
<p>Al-Husseini had welcomed the Nazi seizure of power in Germany in 1933 and the evolving anti-Jewish policy in the following years, requesting, however, that no Jews be sent to Palestine. He sought an alliance between the Arab-Muslim world and the Axis powers Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, demanding that Germany and Italy recognised the independence of the Arab states and their right to reverse steps taken towards the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.</p>
<p><strong>What happened at the meeting with Adolf Hitler?</strong></p>
<p>After escaping Iraq under Italian protection to Nazi occupied Europe in October 1941, al-Husseini met with German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in Berlin on November 20. One week later, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=T2g2XA53UOEC&pg=PA68&lpg=PA68&dq=Record+of+the+Conversation+Between+the+F%C3%BChrer+and+the+Grand+Mufti+of+Jerusalem+on+November+28,+1941&source=bl&ots=eYMueKZUoP&sig=8i1XB65QCTerWSr5x72YQg7p7lA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBWoVChMIn4HPta7YyAIVgQ4aCh0rxwBc#v=onepage&q=Record%20of%20the%20Conversation%20Between%20the%20F%C3%BChrer%20and%20the%20Grand%20Mufti%20of%20Jerusalem%20on%20November%2028%2C%201941&f=false">on November 28</a>, the meeting with Hitler took place which gave rise to Netanyahu’s comments. </p>
<p>However, the course of the conversation was quite different from what Netanyahu would have us believe, as the official German records show.</p>
<p>During the meeting, al-Husseini <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/full-official-record-what-the-mufti-said-to-hitler/">assured Hitler</a> that: “The Arabs were Germany’s natural friends because they had the same enemies as had Germany, namely the English, the Jews and the Communists”, and that “they were prepared to cooperate with Germany with all their hearts”. </p>
<p>He said the Arabs “could be more useful to Germany as allies than might be apparent at first glance, both for geographical reasons and because of the suffering inflicted upon them by the English and the Jews.”</p>
<p>Hitler in return confirmed that “Germany stood for uncompromising war against the Jews”, including “active opposition to the Jewish national home in Palestine”. He <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ikqQCV2fsksC&pg=PA250&lpg=PA250&dq=Germany+was+resolved,+step+by+step,+to+ask+one+European+nation+after+the+other+to+solve+its+Jewish+problem,+and+at+the+proper+time+to+direct+a+similar+appeal+to+non-European+nations+as+well.&source=bl&ots=R74JGguo_p&sig=u4BSiEwSfbARH-Wh1hCV-ZuXhnE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAmoVChMI48y0obPYyAIVg7waCh0r_Anr#v=onepage&q=Germany%20was%20resolved%2C%20step%20by%20step%2C%20to%20ask%20one%20European%20nation%20after%20the%20other%20to%20solve%20its%20Jewish%20problem%2C%20and%20at%20the%20proper%20time%20to%20direct%20a%20similar%20appeal%20to%20non-European%20nations%20as%20well.&f=false">set</a> out to al-Husseini that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Germany was resolved, step by step, to ask one European nation after the other to solve its Jewish problem, and at the proper time to direct a similar appeal to non-European nations as well.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Could their conversation have influenced Hitler’s plan for the Holocaust?</strong></p>
<p>Even if one assumes that the official records would not state in writing how exactly the “Jewish problem” was to be “solved”, it is ludicrous to think that the Grand Mufti could have inspired Hitler during this meeting to move from a plan of mass expulsion to industrial annihilation.</p>
<p>While Nazi policy had <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005468">officially encouraged Jewish emigration</a> – albeit after depriving them of their property – this had never been a realistic option for the solution of the “Jewish question” after the outbreak of World War II. The last of these plans, the plan to deport the <a href="http://www.history.com/news/nazi-germanys-madagascar-plan-75-years-ago">Jews of Europe to Madagascar</a>, a French island colony off the southeast coast of Africa, became technically unfeasible when Germany lost the Battle of Britain in 1940.</p>
<p>The “Final Solution” evolved in stages and the mass murder of Jews had already begun in June 1941 with the invasion of the Soviet Union. Mobile killing squads, the so-called Einsatzgruppen, followed the regular troops and were specifically tasked to kill Jews, Roma (Gypsies) and Soviet political commissars. The <a href="http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/einsatz/babiyar.html">most infamous massacre at Babi Yar</a> (a ravine on the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine), when some 34,000 Jews were killed in a single operation, took place on 29–30 September 1941. </p>
<p>On July 31 1941, Herman Göring, under instructions from Hitler, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Holocaust_Reader.html?id=f6mANvtapywC&redir_esc=y">had ordered</a> Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the SS Reich security main office, to develop a plan “for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question”. On <a href="http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/about/05/death_camps.asp">December 8 1941</a>, ten days after al-Husseini’s meeting with Hitler, Chełmno extermination camp, the first killing centre in the East which used gas for the annihilation, began its operation. Killing by gas was a method of extermination which had been successfully experimented with during <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005200">the “Euthanasia” killings</a>, the murder of disabled people in 1940-41, and the expertise acquired in this process was now applied on an industrial scale to the extermination of the Jews.</p>
<p>It is, therefore, absurd to suggest that al-Husseini inspired Hitler to switch his anti-Jewish policy from expulsion to extermination: the mass killings were already underway at the time of their meeting.</p>
<p><strong>Why has Netanyahu arrived at this interpretation?</strong></p>
<p>It is not the first time Netanyahu tried to suggest that the Arab leader was somehow behind the idea of the physical extermination of the European Jews. He did so before, in 2012. There have been some scholarly attempts exploring the role of al-Husseiny that Netanyahu might feel support his claim, among them most recently by Middle East scholars Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz in their book <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://t1.gstatic.com/images%3Fq%3Dtbn:ANd9GcTPUaGAo-a_QkFwRZ2Raq3Jt--2SNC5m-8yZFgMB71UAjKckNb9&imgrefurl=http://books.google.com/books/about/Nazis_Islamists_and_the_Making_of_the_Mo.html?id%3DUHe9AgAAQBAJ%26source%3Dkp_cover&h=1000&w=662&tbnid=1fOS4ZLBRmqSuM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=106&usg=__MRwx9PU03u2jhP0i5j255t4fv5I=&docid=cld_yza29arPgM&itg=1">Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East</a>. </p>
<p>Netanyahu’s comments are not so much a trivialisation of the Holocaust or even a denial, but a deliberate and dangerous distortion of historical facts. Netanyahu no doubt feels that by accusing a prominent Palestinian leader during the Nazi period of being somehow behind the Holocaust, perhaps even being the inspiration for it, he can successfully discredit today’s Palestinian leadership and their concerns and worries.</p>
<p>By claiming that there exists a century-old tradition of anti-semitism among Palestinians culminating in active participation in the annihilation of the Jewish people, Netanyahu wants to establish a line of direct and straight-forward historical continuity from the Holocaust to <a href="https://theconversation.com/jerusalem-an-intifada-by-any-other-name-is-just-as-dangerous-48939">today’s ongoing tensions</a>. He implies that today’s Intifada has nothing to do with Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, the separation barrier, the question of Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands or the general socio-economic situation of the Palestinians, but that at its core is simply ingrained anti-semitism.</p>
<p>There’s no doubt: Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini was anti-semitic and anti-Israel. He collaborated with Nazi Germany as a broadcaster and propagandist, and he helped recruit Balkan Muslims to fight for the Nazis. There is little doubt that he knew about the Holocaust and did not object when he learned about it (probably following a meeting with Himmler in 1943): however, he was not the inspiration behind the Holocaust. This must never be confused. </p>
<p>As the German chancellor Angela Merkel <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34597283">emphasised</a> again after Netanyahu’s comments: the Holocaust is and remains the sole responsibility of the Germans.</p>
<p>The history of the Holocaust is too sensitive a topic to be allowed to be exploited and abused in inflammatory speeches. Netanyahu’s comments are not supported by scholarly evidence. But now that the genie is out of the bottle, academics will find it much more difficult to get through with their evidenced arguments. Holocaust deniers and right-wing extremists could well hijack Netanyahu’s comments for their agenda as proof that they were right: the Holocaust was not Germany’s original doing, and they can now cite an Israeli prime minister as suggesting exactly that. </p>
<p>The damage that this poses to an evidence-based discussion of the Holocaust is as yet immeasurable – but it could well be a very high price to pay for what Netanyahu probably hoped would give him a short-term political advantage in the upcoming negotiations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49617/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rainer Schulze does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Israeli prime minister’s comments that an Arab leader convinced Hitler to carry out the Holocaust are a distortion of history.Rainer Schulze, Professor of Modern European History; General Editor "The Holocaust in History and Memory", University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.