Mufti imitated Turkish ideas of extermination

In this Arutz Sheva interview , Dr Edy Cohen (pictured) adds his voice to those of historians who have  waded in to the Netanyahu-Mufti controversy. The Mufti would have been inspired by the Armenian genocide to exterminate Jews; when in exile in Iraq (1939 - 41), he set up a party whose constitution states all Jews must be expelled from Arab countries, Dr Cohen claims.

"The Prime Minister’s remarks were not far from reality,” he told Arutz Sheva. “There was a plan by the Mufti to burn the Jews from Arab countries and Jews in Palestine after the German victory in the battle of El Alamein in 1943. Haj Amin al-Husseini was an officer in the Turkish army. I have no proof, but apparently he knew about the Armenian Genocide and drew his ideas from that. None of the historians have referred to that.”

Dr. Cohen quoted the Mufti’s words in Arabic against Iraqi Jews, whom he called a “fifth column” who provided information to British intelligence, and said that he played a part in the Farhud - the pogrom against the Jewish population of Baghdad on June 1 and 2, 1941, following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War.

“The Mufti was responsible for the killing of hundreds of Jews; he planned to build incinerators in the Dotan Valley to implement the ‘Final Solution’ in the Middle East,” said Dr. Cohen. “He took that idea from the Turks. Why do many people ignore the facts rather than reading what the Mufti himself wrote in Arabic? 'I did not cooperate with the Nazis out of the belief in Nazism, but on the assumption that they would win the war and there will be no traces of any Jews in Palestine and in the Arab countries.'"

"When the Mufti was in Iraq, he established up 'Hizb al Umma' party, and the party’s constitution states that all Jews must be expelled from Arab countries as Mohammed did. For me, the Mufti is like Hitler," said Dr. Cohen, who stressed that, while he could not commit as to the content of the conversation between the Mufti and Hitler, it is clear that “both were inspired by each other. They both wanted to eliminate the Jews in Europe and Palestine. There was an unwritten plan that Hitler will focus on the European Jews and the Mufti on the Jews from Arab lands and in Palestine."

Netanyahu last week suggested that Adolf Hitler was not planning to "annihilate" the Jews until he met al-Husseini in 1941, in a comment that was sharply criticized by his political opponents and the White House which Thursday night condemned his "inflammatory rhetoric."

The prime minister later doubled down, clarifying he did not absolve the genocidal Hitler of any responsibility.

Several historians have already backed Netanyahu’s comments, such as Middle East Forum scholar Dr. Wolfgang Schwanitz who said last week, "It is a historical fact that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem al-Hajj Amin al-Husseini was an accomplice whose collaboration with Adolf Hitler played an important role in the Holocaust. He was the foremost extra-European adviser in the process to destroy the Jews of Europe."

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