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Jewish leaders attack Philippine president over Shoah remarks

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Jewish leaders around the world have reacted with fury after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte compared his anti-drugs campaign to the Holocaust.

Mr Duterte said: “Hitler massacred three million Jews... there’re three million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”

“What President Duterte said is not only profoundly inhumane, but it demonstrates an appalling disrespect for human life that is truly heart-breaking for the democratically elected leader of a great country,” said World Jewish Congress president Ronald S Lauder.

The US-based Anti-Defamation League said the comments were “inappropriate and deeply offensive”. The ADL’s Todd Gutnick said it was “baffling why any leader would want to model himself after such a monster”.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre said Mr Duterte owed “[Holocaust] victims an apology for his disgusting rhetoric”.

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