Mohammad Amin al-Hussaini was the most important influential Arab leader during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. An associate and collaborator of the Nazis, al-Husseini was an extreme anti-Semite who did much to instigate the Arabs against the Jews.
As the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, al-Husseini's job was to look over the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem. A respected member of the Palestinian Arab community, he was staunchly opposed to any Jewish immigration to the British Mandate of Palestine. Al-Husseini supported pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism and he supported the idea of Palestine being a part of Greater Syria. He was very open about his strong hatred of the Jews.
Al-Husseini was a key instigator of bloody massacres against the Jews in the 1920s and 1930s. He was instrumental in spreading conspiracy theories and anti-Jewish propaganda that led to 1929 riots against Jews in the British Mandate of Palestine. The violence left at least 133 Jews dead. The ancient Jewish community of Hebron was completely destroyed, as the bodies of the dead Jews were mutilated and the survivors had no choice but to flee. In 1936, al-Husseini organized attacks against Jewish communities throughout the British Mandate of Palestine.
Al-Husseini's ties to Nazi Germany go back to 1933, when Hitler first rose to power. The German Consul-General of the British Mandate of Palestine, the Nazi-supporter Henrich Wolff, met with al-Husseini on a number of occasions. During their meetings, Al-Husseini praised the Nazis' anti-Jewish boycott and voiced enthusiasm over the spread of fascism.
In 1937 al-Husseini fled the British Mandate of Palestine, as he was wanted by the British for inciting violent activity in the territory. He travelled across Middle East, visiting the pro-Nazi regimes, such as the Kingdoms of Iraq and Iran.
Following the collapse of Nazi-sympathetic forces in much of the Middle East, al-Husseini fled to Europe in late 1941. He arrived in Italy and traveled north to Germany. There, he met with Adolf Hitler, Adolf Eichmann and Henrich Himmler, where they discussed their mutual hatred for the Jews.
While in Germany, al-Husseini put a much effort into stopping any Jewish refugee emigration from Nazi occupied Europe to the British Mandate of Palestine. In one instance, the Mufti used his diplomatic power to block 500 Jewish refugee children from Croatia from entering Turkey, just to prevent them from possibly reaching the British Mandate of Palestine in the future.
Al-Husseini unsuccessfully attempted to get the Axis forces to launch chemical gas attacks against Tel Aviv and bomb Jerusalem.
During World War II, al-Husseini was also active in organizing S.S. divisions in the Balkans. Al-Husseini recruited Bosnian Muslims into various Nazi divisions, including the notorious Waffen SS. Throughout the war, these divisions committed brutal atrocities against the local Serb population.
Following the war, al-Husseini was arrested by France. He escaped imprisonment and was given asylum in Egypt. Jewish groups and Yugoslavia tried to extradite al-Husseini for war crimes. The British refused to do so, due to turmoil in the British Mandate of Palestine, where he was a very popular figure among the Palestinian Arabs.
Eichmann's deputy Dieter Wisliceny, who was executed for war crimes, testified at the Nuremberg Trials that "The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan... He was one of Eichmann's best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. I heard him say, accompanied by Eichmann, he had visited incognito the gas chamber of Auschwitz."
Following the birth of the modern state of Israel, Al-Husseini spent the rest of his life organizing raids and terrorist activities against Israel, as well as spreading anti-Israel propaganda in the Arab world.
Al-Husseini's involvement with the Nazis is often avoided by the pro-Palestinian narrative, which often uses the claim that the Palestinians have nothing to do with Hitler, the Nazis, World War II, or the Holocaust.
"Arabs, rise as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you."
