Spokesperson of the US State Department John Kirby said on Wednesday that scholarly evidence does not support view of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the Holocaust, Anadolu reported. "We have seen the press reports of his comments, and if you look at them, they would connote that the scholarly evidence does not support that position," Kirby told a daily briefing. On Tuesday, Netanyahu said that Haj Amin Al-Husseini, the Palestinian Muslim elder in Jerusalem during the 1940s, persuaded Adolf Hitler to exterminate the Jews, noting they would travel to Palestine if they remained alive. When Hitler asked him what to do, Netanyahu said, Al-Husseini told him to exterminate them. Kirby said that Kerry would meet with Netanyahu in Berlin on Thursday in order to discuss ways to end the ongoing tension between Palestinians and Israelis. In a move considered critical of Netanyahu's remarks, Kirby said Kerry hoped for "some level of agreement" that would calm the ongoing clashes, adding that the secretary wanted to see both sides moving away from rhetoric and actions that incite violence. Kerry is due to visit over the coming weekend Jordan, where he will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II.
