by Dr. Tsilla Hershco
Many people know that Jerusalem Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini collaborated with the Nazis, but few people know why he was never tried for war crimes.
During the recent
uproar over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks on the WWII-era
grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the media failed to
underline the important fact that although the mufti had collaborated
with the Nazis, he was never brought to trial. The story of his
detention in France and his subsequent escape is little known to the
public, but has significant repercussions.
In May 1945, with the
German surrender, the mufti chose to turn himself in to the French
occupying troops in Konstanz, believing France to be the most convenient
asylum. The French authorities granted him numerous VIP privileges: a
comfortable villa in the Paris region, free correspondence, telephone
calls, and special food from restaurants. He was allowed to receive
visitors and money and keep his two faithful secretaries, and afforded
some degree of freedom of movement.
The French police
guarding the villa were apparently more preoccupied with securing the
mufti's safety than with preventing his escape. The French authorities
were also preoccupied with the demands of Great Britain, Yugoslavia, the
Jewish Agency and Jewish American organizations to extradite the mufti
in order to bring him to trial as a war criminal. The French realized
that rejecting this demand could harm their relations with their allies.
On the other hand, they were under massive pressure by the Arab states
and feared that allowing the extradition might undermine their prestige
in the Arab and Muslim world. Hence the mufti's detention in France
became a "hot potato" for the French authorities.
In May 1946, the mufti
escaped by taking a TWA flight to Cairo using a fake passport. It took
12 days for the seemingly relieved French authorities to report his
disappearance from the loosely guarded villa. The local police chief was
held responsible and punished. In their internal reports, however, the
French concluded with satisfaction that the mufti affair had been
successfully handled and that it had boosted French prestige in the Arab
world.
In reality, this
prestige was only temporary, as evidenced by the pressure the Arabs
applied on France shortly thereafter to oppose the partition plan at the
crucial U.N. vote in November 1947. They promised in return to stop the
incitement against French rule in North Africa, a promise given
previously and never fulfilled by the mufti.
The mufti's escape and
return to the Middle East had some disastrous implications for the
region. His total rejection of the U.N. partition plan increased the
radicalization of the Arab position. In addition, later Palestinian
leaders such as PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, who were inspired by the
mufti's ideology, adopted his tactics of incitement, propagating the
false allegation that the Jews wished to gain control of Al-Aqsa mosque.
Currently, the mufti's
legacy of using false allegations against Israel regarding Al-Aqsa is
being resurrected by radical Muslims as incitement to commit terrorist
attacks against the Jewish state.
Dr. Tsilla Hershco is a senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University.
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=14177
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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