This article, which is not open for comments, criticises Netanyahu for referring to the role of the Palestinian leader from 1920, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The claim is that the Mufti was responsible to convince the Nazis to go for the Final Solution when he visited the Nazi leaders in 1941. The theory surfaced about a year ago. The timing is right, because the Final Solution was not agreed on until 1942. That does not of course mean that he played a decisive role; it might well have been more like one extra stone that tipped a balance.Certainly he was well aware of what was going on, supported it all the way through and was firm in his opposition to the emigration of Jews to Palestine.
My criticism is of the article's silence on all the rest of the Mufti's previous activities. He was encouraging progroms against Jews in Palestine from as early as 1920, when interest in Zionism amongst Jews was minimal and the prospect of any Jewish state was remote. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, these were a regular occurrence. From 1936, the pressure from the Arab leadership was such as to persuade the British to impose heavy restrictions on immigration to Palestine, thereby closing an important escape route.
In 1941, the Mufti travelled to Baghdad and promoted a coup-d-etat and progrom against the Jews. Throughout the war he broadcast on behalf of the Axis, encouraging Arabs in their antisemitism. After the war his name was on the list of war criminals but he escaped and was never put on trial, having become a pawn in politics designed to appease Arab feelings.
None of this is referred to in the Guardian..
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