'Palestine's efforts against Nazis are deep-rooted part of our history,' Erekat says

"Palestine will never forget – though it seems Netanyahu’s extremist government has," the PLO official said.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Updated: OCTOBER 21, 2015 17:34
Netanyahu: 'Palestinian mufti convinced Hitler to massacre Europe's Jews'
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas denounced as “despicable and low” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s remarks about the responsibility of mufti Hajj Amin Husseini for the Holocaust on Wednesday.
Abbas accused Netanyahu of trying to “change the history” of the Jewish people by blaming Husseini instead of Adolf Hitler.
PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat also denounced Netanyahu, saying in a statement that, “Netanyahu hates Palestinians so much that he is willing to absolve Hitler of the murder of six million Jews.”
Erekat claimed that Palestinians had fought alongside the Allied Troops in defense of international justice. “Palestinian efforts against the Nazi regime are a deep-rooted part of our history,” he said. “Palestine will never forget – though it seems Netanyahu’s extremist government has.”
Erekat said that this was a “sad day in history when the leader of the Israeli government hates his neighbor so much that he is willing to absolve the most notorious war criminal in history, Adolf Hitler, of the murder of six million Jews."
"Mr. Netanyahu should stop using this human tragedy to score points for his political end,” he said.
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi accused Netanyahu of “losing touch with reality” and “lying.” She said that Netanyahu’s remarks were “political and historic hallucination.”
Social media and the Israeli political scene were abuzz on Wednesday after Netanyahu's suggestion that Hitler initially had no intention of massacring European Jewry went viral.
In a speech to delegates at the 37th World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem on Tuesday, the premier claimed that Hitler's original intentions were solely to expel the Jews.
According to Netanyahu, the Fuhrer changed his mind at the insistence of the then-Palestinian Arab leader, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who argued that the expulsion of the Jews would result in their arrival en masse to Palestine, which at the time was under British Mandatory rule.
Netanyahu made the claim as part of an effort to illustrate the Palestinian propensity to use the holy places in Jerusalem as pretexts for committing acts of violence against Jews.
"My grandfather came to this land in 1920 and he landed in Jaffa, and very shortly after he landed he went to the immigration office in Jaffa," Netanyahu told delegates on Tuesday. "And a few months later it was burned down by marauders. These attackers, Arab attackers, murdered several Jews, including our celebrated writer [Yosef Haim] Brenner."
"And this attack and other attacks on the Jewish community in 1920, 1921, 1929, were instigated by a call of the mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who was later sought for war crimes in the Nuremberg trials because he had a central role in fomenting the final solution," the premier said. "He flew to Berlin. 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'."