The Weaponization of the Grand Mufti: Zionist Deflection and Historical Truth

How one meeting is used to smear an entire people while erasing documented Zionist ties to fascist regimes

For decades, Zionist propagandists have invoked Haj Amin al-Husseini, the wartime Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, to claim that Palestinians were complicit in the Holocaust, or even inspired it. This smear, most notoriously repeated by Benjamin Netanyahu in 2015, is not only historically false but a cynical attempt to deflect attention from actual Nazi perpetrators and to obscure documented instances of Zionist engagement with fascist regimes.¹²

Who Was the Grand Mufti?

Hitler and al-Husseini, November 28, 1941.

The office of “Grand Mufti of Jerusalem” was not an ancient Palestinian institution but rather a British colonial construction. In 1921, the British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel, himself a committed Zionist, appointed Husseini to the position after he came fourth in the election for the role.³ This made him a political appointee of empire, not a democratically chosen Palestinian leader.

Many Palestinians saw him as compromised by that very system. His relationship with British authorities, especially during and after the Arab Revolt of 1936 to 1939, led some to view him as a collaborator or, at minimum, a figure shaped by colonial power rather than a representative of popular will.² He did not speak for all Palestinians. He was elevated within a structure imposed on them.

Husseini and Nazi Germany: Opportunism, Not Influence

It is true that Husseini fled to Berlin after being expelled from Iraq in 1941 and sought support from Nazi Germany. He made propaganda broadcasts and agreed to be photographed with Adolf Hitler. That image has been recycled for decades as shorthand for Palestinian guilt.³

But the historical record is clear:

• Hitler rejected Husseini’s request for a German equivalent of the Balfour Declaration supporting Arab independence.³

• Husseini played no role in shaping the Final Solution, despite Netanyahu’s claim that he “convinced Hitler” to exterminate the Jews.¹⁴

• His political focus was on preventing Jewish immigration to Palestine, not designing or directing genocide.³

• Even Yad Vashem acknowledges that Husseini “was not involved in the formulation of the Final Solution.”⁴

The attempt to elevate him into a central figure in the Holocaust is not supported by serious scholarship. It is a political narrative retrofitted onto history.

The Hypocrisy: Zionist Collaboration with Fascists

While Zionist narratives fixate on Husseini’s opportunism, they routinely ignore their own documented interactions with fascist regimes.

• The Haavara Agreement allowed the transfer of Jewish emigrants and capital from Nazi Germany to Palestine, undermining the global Jewish boycott of German goods at the time.⁵

• The Lehi, led by Avraham Stern and later Yitzhak Shamir, proposed a military alliance with Nazi Germany in 1940 based on a shared interest in defeating Britain. Hitler rejected the proposal, but the offer itself is historically documented.⁶

• Zionist groups such as Irgun and Betar also received arms and support from Benito Mussolini’s Italy while carrying out attacks against British forces.⁶

• Future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Shamir were involved in militant operations targeting British infrastructure and personnel during World War II, even as the Allies were engaged in a global war against fascism.⁶

Palestinians and Arabs Against Fascism

Contrary to propaganda, Palestinians did not rally behind Husseini’s actions.

• Thousands of Palestinians enlisted in the British Army to fight the Axis powers.⁵

• Historian Gilbert Achcar found that out of 250 Arabs captured fighting for the Axis, only 18 were Palestinian.⁶

• Muslim clerics in Bosnia issued declarations condemning Nazi atrocities against Jews and Serbs in 1941 to 1942.²

• Albania, a Muslim-majority nation, ended World War II with more Jews than it began with, as Albanians sheltered Jews from deportation.²

Meanwhile, numerous European states, including France, Hungary, Italy, and Croatia, collaborated extensively with Nazi Germany and deported their Jewish populations. Yet collective guilt is rarely applied to Europeans as a whole.

The Propaganda Function

The Mufti narrative is not about historical clarity. It is about political framing. Even institutions like Yad Vashem have been criticized for disproportionately emphasizing Husseini in ways that suggest a broader Palestinian association with Nazism.² The effect is to collapse anti-Zionism into antisemitism and to delegitimize Palestinian resistance by associating it with fascism.

By centering Husseini, this narrative erases both Palestinian opposition to fascism and documented Zionist engagement with it. It replaces history with insinuation.

What does “never again” really mean?

Haj Amin al-Husseini made opportunistic and morally indefensible choices. But he was not the architect of the Holocaust, nor was he representative of Palestinians as a whole. The attempt to generalize his actions while ignoring comparable or more substantial historical evidence on the Zionist side is not analysis. It is propaganda.

“Never Again” must apply universally. To weaponize the Holocaust as a shield for ongoing ethnic cleansing and mass violence in Palestine is itself a form of Holocaust abuse.⁷

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References:

1. CBC, “Scholars Slam Netanyahu for Suggesting WW II-Era Palestinian Leader Inspired Holocaust,” October 21, 2015, https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/scholars-slam-netanyahu-for-suggesting-ww-ii-era-palestinian-leader-inspired-holocaust-1.3282286⁠

2. Tony Greenstein, “Rewriting the Holocaust,” Middle East Eye, October 22, 2015, https://share.google/NQLUNrT36GTkrHZFl⁠

3. Ishaan Tharoor, “The Real Reason a Palestinian Mufti Allied with Hitler,” The Washington Post, October 22, 2015, https://time.com/4084301/hitler-grand-mufi-1941/⁠

4. Yad Vashem, “Adhering to the Historical Truth about the Mufti during the Holocaust,” October 22, 2015, https://www.yadvashem.org/blog/adhering-to-the-historical-truth-about-the-mufti-during-the-holocaust.html⁠

5. Decolonize Palestine, “The Mufti Helped Inspire the Holocaust,” n.d., https://decolonizepalestine.com/myth/the-mufti-helped-inspire-the-holocaust/⁠

6. Palestine Remembered, “Aren’t Palestinians as Responsible as Their Leader Mufti Haj Amin Husseini Who Collaborated with the Nazis?” n.d., https://share.google/T5i6VfeP9IIHntjAu⁠

7. Michael A. Sells, “Holocaust Abuse: The Case of Hajj Muhammad Amin al-Husayni,” Journal of Genocide Research 55, no. 4 (1993): 725–744, https://share.google/unYVu3Cgwydco7LV3⁠

8. Ofer Reingold, “The Real Reason a Palestinian Mufti Allied with Hitler? It’s Not So Shocking,” The Washington Post, October 22, 2015, https://share.google/lAIPess8fQ9PrpG2J⁠

9. USC Shoah Foundation, “Did Haj Amin al-Husseini Influence Hitler?” n.d., https://share.google/j2bYx7m0Wcl2ZtvmO⁠