Haj Amin al-Husseini was the grand mufti of Jerusalem during the 1940s.
He was sought for war crimes after War War Two, but never appeared at the Nuremberg trials.
He famously flew to visit Adolf Hitler in Berlin in November 1941.
In a speech to the Zionist Congress, Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has claimed that meeting was instrumental in the Nazi leader's decision to launch a campaign to annihilate the Jews.
"Hitler didn't want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews, and Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, 'if you expel them, they will all come here', 'so what should I do with them', he asked. He said 'burn them'."
Israel's opposition Zionist Union party says the comments are "a dangerous distortion of history" that trivialize the Nazis.
The Palestine Liberation Organization says Mr Netanyahu's remarks show he hates Palestinians so much he's willing to absolve Hitler of the Holocaust.
The chief historian of Israel's Holocaust memorial museum, Professor Dina Porat, has accused Mr Netanyahu of distorting timelines and drawing false conclusions.
She says as early as January 1939, Hitler told Nazi Germany's parliament of his determination to exterminate the Jews, and thousands of Jews had been killed by the time he met the Palestinian nationalist.
"The Mufti had in mind asking Germany to include the destruction of the Jews in the land of Israel, in the Middle East and in North Africa in Hitler's Final Solution. This was his aim. No doubt about it. But it came in the meeting with Hitler which took place in November 1941, it came much later than the evolvement of the idea that Hitler had."
Responding to the criticism, Mr Netanyahu insisted there was evidence to back up his accusations, including testimony at the Nuremberg war crimes trials.
Hours later he travelled to Germany to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel, where he told journalists his remarks were not intended to absolve Hitler.
"The responsibility of Hitler and the Nazis for the extermination of 6-million Jews is clear to all fair-minded people. I think no-one should deny another important testimony about the Mufti of Jerusalem that he told the Nazis to prevent the the fleeing of Jews from Europe. And that he supported the final solution."
The German government has stated Germany was responsible for the holocaust, with spokesman Steffen Seibert saying there is no alternate view on it.
"All Germans know the history of the murderous race mania of the Nazis that led to the break with civilization that was the Holocaust. This is taught in German schools for a good reason and should never be forgotten. I see no reason to change our view of history in any way. We know that responsibility for this crime against humanity is German and very much our own."
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