Palestinian leaders idolize the Nazis, sympathize with them and ensure that the next generation is raised on these repugnant notions.
By United with Israel Staff
Numerous expressions of Nazi sympathies by Palestinian leadership have been documented and exposed over the years, with the admiration of Adolf Hitler being a key part of Palestinian Holocaust denial and distortion.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a watchdog which monitors Palestinian media and incitement and has a massive file on the subject, noted that some expressions of sympathy are blatant, while others are more subliminal.
For instance, senior Fatah official Tawfik Tirawi previously stated in a TV interview that “Hitler was not morally corrupt. He was daring.” Tirawi’s approach even offended the Palestinian interviewer who chose to quickly change the topic.
Fatah is Palestinian Authority (PA) Head Mahmoud Abbas’ political party.
Palestinian Schools Honor Nazis
Similarly, the Palestinians have named three schools after Nazi collaborators, as well as after terrorists including murderers such as Dalal Mughrabi. One school was a named after Nazi collaborator and war criminal Amin Al-Husseini and two others were named after Nazi collaborator Hassan Salameh.
Amin Al-Husseini was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem at the time of the British Mandate. During World War II he moved to Berlin, where he collaborated with the Nazis and was an associate of Hitler. Al-Husseini was responsible for a Muslim SS division that murdered thousands of Serbs and Croats and was on Yugoslavia’s list of wanted Nazi war criminals. When the Nazis offered to free 5,000 Jewish children, Al-Husseini fought against their release which caused 5,000 children to be sent to the gas chambers.
Hassan Salameh was a leader of Arab gangs in the Lod and Jaffa region in the 1930s and 1940s. He was a loyal follower of Amin Al-Husseini. In 1941, Salameh was recruited to be a Nazi agent, and in 1944, he was sent on a mission by the Nazis in the British Mandate Palestine, with the goal of starting an Arab revolt against the British and poisoning Tel Aviv’s water sources. The plot was discovered and thwarted by the British. In 1947, Salameh was appointed by Al-Husseini as Deputy Commander of the Holy Jihad Army that fought Israel in the 1948 War of Independence.
“Obviously, schools are named after people who the PA Ministry of Education sees as role models and aspires for the students to emulate,” PMW underscored.
Ensuring that the educational message is emphasized, at least two schools have posted pictures of Hitler accompanied with the text: “Hitler said: ‘I could have annihilated all of the Jews in the world, but I left a few so that you would know why I annihilated them.'”
Distortion of History
The Palestinian sympathy with Al-Husseini is not limited to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education. A post on the PA National Security Forces’ Facebook page similarly glorified him.
The Lebanese branch of Abbas’ Fatah Movement argued in an article that the true victims of Holocaust were the Palestinians and that Former British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour was himself an Anti-Semite who “like Hitler, wanted to get rid of the Jews, so he sent them to Palestine instead of killing them.”
The Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917 was a letter from Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that “His Majesty’s government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
In 1922, the League of Nations adopted this position and made the British Mandate “responsible for putting into effect the declaration,” which led to the UN vote in 1947 and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
“The difference between Hitler and Balfour in this field was that Balfour had colonies, among them Palestine, and he sent the Jews there in order to get rid of them. Hitler did not have colonies, and therefore he got rid of them through extermination. However, the true victims of both Balfour and Hitler were the Palestinians and the Arabs, and we are still paying the price after 100 years,” the Lebanese branch of Abbas’ Fatah Movement wrote on its website.
Hitler Admiration Passed on to the Next Generation
This reverent view of Hitler is being passed on to Palestinian youth through cultural and recreational means as well.
Zayzafuna, a Palestinian children’s magazine funded by the PA, accepted for publication a submission by a 10th grade Palestinian girl which presented Hitler not only as a positive figure, but one to be admired because he killed Jews in order to benefit all humanity.
The girl’s submission describes her dream in which she met four heroic historical figures and has a conversation with each of them. Three of them were renowned Muslims, including a Nobel Prize recipient and a math scholar, and the fourth was Hitler.
“You’re the one who killed the Jews?” she says to Hitler in her dream. “Yes. I killed them so you would all know that they are a nation which spreads destruction all over the world. And what I ask of you is to be resilient and patient, concerning the suffering that Palestine is experiencing at their hands.” he responds.
Although repugnant, a Palestinian teenager’s admiration for Hitler because he killed Jews, alongside other Muslim terrorist role models, is not unexpected, as PMW has widely documented.
Palestinian children are indoctrinated to believe that killing Israelis and Jews is heroic. The PA has named streets, schools, sporting events and more after Palestinian terrorists who have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians.
“In Palestinian cultural, educational and social events, every Palestinian child is exposed to repeated glorification of terrorists who have killed Jews,” PMW stated. “It is not surprising that a Palestinian child who has been educated to see those who have murdered Jews as heroes and role models will conclude that Hitler, the one who murdered the most Jews in history, is likewise worthy of admiration.”
(With files from PMW)