Volume 4 No 2 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

2012] ISLAMIC ANTISEMITISM IN THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT 599land . . . expulsion of all the Jews from all Arab and Muslim countries . . . isthe only remedy. It is what the prophet did thirteen centuries ago.” 22 Mostdisturbing are the overt calls to kill the Jews in Arab lands and open boastsabout the ongoing Nazi program to “annihilate the Jews.” 23 “There is noroom on earth for both Arabs and the Jews.” 24 “Kill the Jews wherever youfind them.” 25 “The world will never be at peace until the Jewish race isexterminated. . . . The Jews are the germs which have caused all the troublein the world.” 26 In a November 1943 radio broadcast, Husseini extolled theGermans because they had “decided to find a definitive solution to the Jewishdanger.” 27This last quotation brings us to the issue of the mufti’s awareness ofand support for the Holocaust. Based on archival evidence, Klaus Gensickestates that “by mid-1942 at the latest the mufti was fully aware of what washappening in the concentration camps.” A member of the mufti’s staff,together with other Arab officials, visited the Sachsenhausen camp in July1942; according to Nazi officials, “‘In particular the Jews aroused the interestof the Arabs.’ The visit left the Arabs with a ‘very favorable impression’.”28 Gensicke also stresses that Husseini had an excellent intelligenceapparatus that gave him remarkable knowledge of goings-on within theNazi government and Nazi-occupied Europe more broadly. On numerousoccasions, he got wind of diplomatic efforts to broker the emigration ofJews from Nazi-occupied Europe or from Nazi satellites like Hungary,Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, sometimes in exchange for money, sometimesas an effort by the Germans themselves to arrange for the repatriationof German nationals stranded abroad upon the outbreak of war. On theseoccasions, Husseini worked energetically to prevent the release of Jews,suggesting instead that they be sent to Poland, where they could be keptunder “strict control.” 29 One German Foreign Office official who hadextensive dealings with the mufti in these cases remarked in a memorandum:“The Mufti was a sworn enemy of the Jews and made no secret of thefact that he would rather see them all killed.” 30 Finally, in his own memoirs,Hajj Amin al-Husseini admits that he was informed by his good friend22. Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, 170, 187; also 215-216.23. Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, 106-7, 125-6.24. Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, 173-4.25. Gensicke, The Mufti of Jerusalem, 117, 129; Herf, Nazi Propaganda for theArab World, 213.26. Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, 184.27. Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, 187.28. Gensicke, The Mufti of Jerusalem, 169 n. 54; also 118-9, 127.29. Gensicke, The Mufti of Jerusalem, 117-128.30. Gensicke, The Mufti of Jerusalem, 122.