Jordanian ex-minister: Arabs supported Hitler because he hated Jews
His comments came days before a Jordanian researcher claimed just 400,000 Jews had been killed by the Nazis.
By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDSPROTESTERS IN Amman challenge the US and Israel policies on Jerusalem. ‘A quick review of the public relationship between Israel and Jordan in the last decade reveals multiple crises,’ notes the author. (photo credit: REUTERS)
A former Jordanian minister has told Jordanian TV that Arabs supported Hitler during World War II because he hated the Jews.His comments came just days before Jordan hosted a Holocaust denial conference, at which a Jordanian journalist claimed that the 'Final Solution' was not the systematic murder of Jews, but merely a plan to drive them out of Germany.Speaking to Jordan's A One TV on October 9, former Health Minister Dr Zaid Hamzeh recounted that while at school during the war, he and his fellow students were encouraged to demonstrate in support of Hitler.According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, which surveys Middle Eastern media outlets and provides English translation transcripts, when asked: "Did you support Hitler, like all the Arabs?" Hamzeh replied "Yes."He continued: "The first demonstration I participated in... They took us out of fourth grade. I was exactly nine years old. I asked: 'What's the demonstration for?' [The slogan was:] 'Down with X, but long live Abu Ali!'"Abu Ali was a reference to Hitler, but we didn't know that. They didn't tell us. We took to the streets to support him when the Rashid Ali Al-Gailani revolution broke out in Iraq. We supported the revolution, and, of course, [we supported] Hitler, because he hated the Jews, and we have been mad at the Jews ever since those days."Quizzing him, the interviewer asked if his hatred of Jews was really the reason the Arabs supported Hitler, or whether it was simply because Arabs "love dictators," adding: "We love people who kill and slaughter. We consider this to be a sign of manliness."Hamzah denied this was the reason, saying "Nobody loves dictators, except for people who have been led astray."However, he then continued: "But with regard to dictators, you are right. We laud the dictator and wish he would come back. We want him to come riding in on a white horse and to liberate the land, while the people here are in a slumber or watching from the sideline."His comments were made just days before Jordanian researcher and journalist Muwaffaq Muhadin denied millions of Jewish deaths at the hands of the Nazis.
Speaking at a conference entitled "The Holocaust – the Biggest Lie in Modern History," broadcast by Al-Finiq TV (Jordan) on October 14, 2019, Muhadin claimed that, at most, 400,000 Jews died in the concentration camps."Nobody denies that hundreds of thousands of Jews, and maybe more, were killed during WWII,' he said. "I'm saying 'killed,' and not 'burned.' There is a difference between being killed and being burned in a systematic manner. The number of Gypsies, for example, that were killed is much bigger than the number of Jews that were killed. The Russian army and the Russian people lost 20 million people [in the war]."Let's agree that the number of people killed in the camps and outside of them is between 600,000 and 800,000. Between 600,000 and 800,000. Let's assume that half of them were Jews. This means that no more than 400,000 Jews were killed in the war. This is the number of Jews who died – that is, who passed away – in WWII."He added: "Millions were killed in this war from among all the European peoples. The Jews were killed just like the Germans were killed. Millions were killed from Nazi Germany itself. So Jews and non-Jews alike were killed."Zyklon B, the gas used to murder Jews, was, he claimed "essential for purifying clothes from insects and diseases - especially typhus."Explaining away the Nazi's Final Solution to exterminate the Jewish population, Muhadin claimed it was merely designed to encourage Jewish emigration."[The Nazis told the Jews]: We encourage you to leave this country," he said. "Go, and take your possessions and your money with you. Go and leave us alone. We do not want Jews in Germany. This [Jewish] influence, which destroyed the German and even the Western culture – we do not want it in our country. This is what they called the 'Final Solution.' For the Germans, the 'Final Solution' meant driving the Jews out of Germany.Tensions have been mounting between Jordan and Israel in recent months. In August, Jordanian members of parliament renewed a recommendation that the Israeli ambassador in Amman be expelled from the country to protest Israeli "violations" against the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
