Duterte calls Hitler ‘insane’ at Holocaust memorial

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter Sara visit the Hall of Names at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Monday, Sept 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

JERUSALEM – President Rodrigo Duterte, who once likened his drug war to the Holocaust that killed six million Jews, called Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as “insane” during his visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial here on Monday.

“I could not imagine of a country obey an insane leader. And I could not ever fathom the spectacle of a human being going into a killing spree, murdering old men, women, men, children, mother,” Duterte said in a brief speech at the Hall of Names inside the Yad Vashem.

The Hall of Names is a memorial to each Jew who perished during the Holocaust.

“I hope that this will not happen again. We have learned so much [over] the years during the two wars. There is always a lesson to be learned and that despots and leaders who show insanity should be — well they should be disposed of at the first instance,” he said.

Duterte’s visit was dubbed as historic, being the first sitting Philippine President to set foot on Israel and the Holocaust Memorial Center.

“I would like to say that we are one in saying that it will not happen again and my country will be the first to voice such I said a massacre of a race just because of hate,” he said.

In September 2016, Duterte drew criticisms after he compared his anti-drug campaign to the Hitler-led Holocaust, saying he would be “happy to slaughter” three million addicts.

The President later visited a synagogue in Manila to personally apologize to the Jewish community, in what he described as a “terribly wrong” remark.