The White House on Thursday rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial claim that a Palestinian cleric inspired Adolf Hitler to carry out the Holocaust.
“I don’t think there is any doubt here at the White House who is responsible for the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters.
{mosads}Schultz stressed the need for “both sides to tamp down the rhetoric” to halt the recent wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
“We here continue to stress publicly and privately the importance of preventing inflammatory rhetoric, accusations or actions on both sides that can feed the violence,” the spokesman said. “We believe the inflammatory rhetoric needs to stop.”
Secretary of State John Kerry met with Netanyahu in Berlin earlier Thursday, urging him to tone down his language.
“It is absolutely critical to end all incitement and all violence, and to find a road forward to build the possibility that is not there today for a larger process,” Kerry said.
In a speech to the World Zionist Congress on Tuesday, Netanyahu argued that Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem and an ally of Hitler, gave the Nazi leader the idea to exterminate the Jews during World War II.
“Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews,” the prime minister said. “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.’”
Opposition politicians and historians inside Israel, as well as Palestinians, condemned Netanyahu’s account as factually inaccurate.
Husseini is known as an anti-Semitic figure who fomented violence against Jews living in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine. But he did not meet Hitler until 1941, when the Holocaust was already underway.
The Israeli leader made his Holocaust claim while arguing that Palestinians have a long history of inciting Jews.
Palestinian leaders have recently accused Israel of threatening Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, which sits atop the Temple Mount, a holy site to both Jews and Muslims. The squabble over the Temple Mount has set off a wave of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis.
Netanyahu said it’s untrue that Israel is trying to infringe on any Muslim holy sites.
“I think it’s time for the international community to say clearly to President Abbas: Stop spreading lies about Israel, lies that Israel wants to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, lies that Israel wants to tear down the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and lies that Israel is executing Palestinians,” he said Thursday. “All of that is false.”
President Obama and Netanyahu, who have long had a tense relationship, are scheduled to meet at the White House on Nov. 8.
It will be the the first face-to-face discussion between the two leaders since the finalization of the Iran nuclear deal, which Netanyahu vehemently opposed.