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Nazi Germany Considered Bombing Jews in Mandatory Palestine
(Ha'aretz) Nir Hasson - Israeli historians Prof. Benjamin Z. Kedar and Daniel Uziel recently published aerial photographs of Palestine taken by the Luftwaffe during World War II in the Hebrew-language journal Cathedra, in a study titled "Hitler's Pilots Photograph Eretz Israel." Some 286 photographs from 50 sorties were found in the U.S. National Archives after being seized by the Allies. Twice during the war, the Nazis considered using the information gathered in the aerial sorties to bomb cities in Palestine. In both cases, it was the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who was living in Germany and had close ties with the SS, who pushed for the bombing. In the summer of 1943, Husseini proposed bombing Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in reprisal for the British and American bombardments of German cities. The Luftwaffe prepared a detailed plan for a heavy bombardment of Tel Aviv, but it was rejected by German air force commander Hermann Goering. A few months later, the Mufti proposed that the Luftwaffe bomb a building where a gathering of leaders of the Jewish Yishuv was due to be held on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. German air force headquarters rejected the idea and suggested a symbolic bombing of the Jewish Agency building in Jerusalem instead, but this proposal was rejected by the air force's intelligence branch.