by Joshua Lapide

The attack took place in Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem. Four Israelis arrested for lynching a young Eritrean mistaken for "Palestinian aggressor". Benjamin Netanyahu accuses World War II Mufti of Jerusalem of inspiring Hitler to the final solution against the Jews. For him, Palestinians and Muslims are the perpetrators of the Holocaust. But Israeli historians contradict him.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - An Israeli was wounded this morning in Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem. When he was stabbed by two attackers who were later "neutralized" by the police. It is not clear whether they were killed or only wounded.

According to police, the two assailants tried to board a bus, but passengers stopped them. The two then stabbed a 25 year old Jew who was near the bus station.

Violence is increasing daily in Israel is becoming more and more widespread, involving common people among attackers and victims. At the same time, among the Israelis - and police – the defensive climate is also growing which can also lead itself to further violence.

This was the case in the murder of  the young Eritrean a week ago after he was mistaken for a possible Palestinian assailant.

Police yesterday arrested four Israelis who lynched the young Habtom Zarhum, 29.  The Eritrean immigrant was first targeted in Beersheba by a security guard and then mobbed by the crowd who gruesomely beat him to a bloody pulp.

The recent spate of violence has led to the deaths of eight Israelis and 47 Palestinians, many of whom were attackers with knives.

Added to inflammatory tensions is the superficiality of leaders. Two days ago in a speech at the World Zionist Congress, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that it was the wartime mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini who instilled the idea to exterminate the Jews in Adolf Hitler.

According to Netanyahu, Hitler did not intend to kill the Jews, but only to expel them from Germany. Only after the meeting between the two, on Nov. 28, 1941, did the Fuhrer decide on the final solution.

Several Israeli historians have now corrected their Prime Minister’s claims demonstrating that the extermination of the Jews had already begun several months earlier in Germany.

Today the newspaper Haaretz waged heavy criticism against the premier, branding his claims as a "cynical, coarse and twisted effort to rewrite the history of World War II with the clear purpose of propaganda".

 Netanyahu was trying to blame Palestinians and Muslims for the Holocaust, threatening to create new tensions and clashes.

Last night Netanyahu has corrected his statements. The German government spokesman reiterated once again that Nazi Germany was soley responsible for the killing of six million Jews.

• ISRAEL-PALESTINE
• knife
• violence
• attack