GENEVA (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for comments suggesting that a World War II-era Palestinian religious leader persuaded the Nazis to carry out a policy that exterminated 6 million Jews.

Speaking to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Abbas deplored Netanyahu's comments a week earlier referring to Nazi sympathizer Haj Amin al-Husseini, a former grand mufti of Jerusalem. The remarks aimed to illustrate Netanyahu's belief that Palestinian incitement at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site goes back decades, but set off an uproar instead.

Abbas on Wednesday called the allegations "false, untrue and baseless" and said they manipulate the sentiments of Jews about "the most horrendous crime known in modern history committed by the Nazis."

He spoke amid new violence between Palestinians and Israelis.