WASHINGTON (JTA) — A group purporting to counter an anti-Israel ad campaign posted ads on Washington, D.C., buses featuring a photograph of Adolf Hitler meeting with Palestinian leader Haj Amin al-Husseini.

The American Freedom Defense Initiative, led by the Islam critic Pamela Geller, launched its effort this week on about 20 Metro buses. The ads are headlined “Islamic Jew-hatred: It’s in the Koran” and call for a suspension of U.S. aid to Muslim countries.

The caption to the photo describes “Adolph Hitler and his staunch ally, the leader of the Muslim world, Haj Amin al-Husseini” in a wartime meeting. Husseini, the grand mufti of Jersualem from 1921 to 1937 before his exile by British authorities, propagandized on behalf of the Nazis and sought to recruit European Muslims to the Nazi cause but mostly failed.

The American Freedom Defense Initiative said on its website that the ads were in response to a bus ad campaign by American Muslims for Palestine that featured a grimacing Uncle Sam waving an Israeli flag and headlined “We’re sweating April 15 so Israelis don’t have to.” April 15 is Tax Day. “Stop US aid to Israel’s Occupation!” it said.

AFDI has published controversial ads in response to pro-Palestinian campaigns in other cities.

Geller led efforts to prevent the building of an Islamic center several blocks away from the site of the 9/11 terrorist attack on Manhattan’s World Trade Center. She has criticized by groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and others for her harsh comments about Islam.

Husseini, who had sought an alliance with the Axis in a bid to drive Jews out of Palestine, escaped French arrest for his Nazi collaboration and slipped into obscurity until his 1974 death in Lebanon.

(AMFP)