In a speech delivered at the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a Palestinian leader persuaded the Nazis to carry out the Holocaust.

As the BBC reports, Netanyahu gave an account of a meeting between Adolf Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, in which the Nazi leader expressed his desire to drive the Jews out of Europe.

"Hitler didn't want to exterminate the Jews at the time -- he wanted to expel the Jews," the Israeli prime minister said.

According to Netanyahu, al-Husseini tried to dissuade Hitler from simple expulsion and told him instead to "burn them."

The prime minister’s view of Holocaust history has been criticized.

As YNet News reports, Dina Porat, the chief historian of the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, has called Netanyahu's comments incorrect.

"You cannot say that it was the mufti who gave Hitler the idea to kill or burn Jews," she said. "It's not true. Their meeting occurred after a series of events that point to this."

As reported by The New York Times, Moshe Zimmermann, a historian at the Hebrew University, said, “With this, Netanyahu joins a long line of people that we would call Holocaust deniers.”

Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog has castigated the Prime Minister's remarks, which he says will be used by Holocaust deniers. Herzog took to Facebook to demand that Netanyahu correct his statement right away.

Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, made a point to say that her nation "abides by its responsibility for the Holocaust.”

Saeb Erekat, the secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, released a statement lamenting that the Israeli government apparently hated Palestine enough to absolve Adolf Hitler.

"Palestinian efforts against the Nazi regime are a deep-rooted part of our history,” Erekat said. “Palestine will never forget -- though it seems Netanyahu’s extremist government has.”

Watch Netanyahu's speech: