Israel expresses strong concern over Duterte’s Hitler remark

President Rodrigo Duterte reviews an honor guard with his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Dai Quang during a welcome ceremony at the presidential palace in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sept. 29. AP

JERUSALEM—Israel’s foreign ministry says it’s “unfortunate” that President Rodrigo Duterte chose to invoke Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust in his bloody anticrime war.

Spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon says Saturday Israel is convinced the Philippine President “will find a way to clarify his words.”

On Friday, the outspoken Duterte said “Hitler massacred 3 million Jews … there’s 3 million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”

Duterte, under fire for extrajudicial killings in the drug war, was referring to the estimated number of drug addicts in the country. The US has warned the President’s violent rhetoric could affect aid.

The Nazis and their allies killed 6 million Jews during World War II as part of a campaign to obliterate European Jewry.