President Rodrigo Roa Duterte interacts with the Filipinos based in Israel as he met with them at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem on September 2, 2018. REY BANIQUET/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
JERUSALEM — President Rodrigo Duterte, who had stirred controversy for his deadly war on drugs at home and for comments about the Holocaust, received a warm welcome in Israel when he arrived for a four-day visit on Sunday.
Mr. Duterte kicked off his visit by attending an event of the Filipino community in Israel on Sunday evening.
An estimated 28,000 Filipinos work in Israel, mostly as health aides.
Lisa Levi, a Filipino working in Israel, told Channel 10 TV that she was “excited” and “proud” Mr. Duterte was visiting.
“I wish I could hug him and thank him for everything he does,” Levi said in Hebrew.
She said her home country was safer now and that accusations of human rights violations were “untrue.”
Warm welcome
Mr. Duterte, who had stirred controversy with his foul-mouthed attacks on former US President Barack Obama and even God, received a warm welcome from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at their meeting on Monday.
The two leaders oversaw the signing of three agreements in trade, science and care-giving.
Netanyahu highlighted the countries’ long friendship, how the Philippines took in Jewish refugees during World War II and was the only Asian nation to vote for Israel’s establishment.
Mr. Duterte thanked Israel for treating Filipino expatriate workers here as “human beings.”
He also thanked Israel for its “critical help” in wresting back Marawi City from Islamic State-inspired local terrorists last year.
Mr. Duterte drew outrage in 2016 when he compared his war on drugs to the Nazi genocide of Jews in World War II and said he would be “happy to slaughter” 3 million addicts. He later apologized.
He was scheduled to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on Monday and later a monument commemorating the Philippines’ rescue of Jews during the Holocaust.
Israelis protest
In contrast to the warm official welcome, Israeli human rights activists planned to protest the visit and had encouraged Israeli President Reuven Rivlin not to meet the Philippine leader over accusations of human rights violations.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an editorial headlined “A Hitler admirer at Yad Vashem,” while left-wing politicians questioned why Netanyahu would welcome Mr. Duterte with open arms.
“Certainly there is no place for a mass murderer and a person who supports rape, shooting women in their sexual organs and bombing schools to meet with Israel’s president,” wrote the group, which is headed by human rights lawyer Eitay Mack.
Philippine National Police tallies place the number of suspects killed in police sweeps of impoverished communities at more than 4,500 since Mr. Duterte took office in June 2016.
International human rights watchdogs have cited far higher death tolls.
Mr. Duterte, a 73-year-old former government prosecutor, denies condoning extrajudicial killings but has openly threatened drug dealers with death.—REPORTS FROM CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO AND AP