{"id":81808,"date":"2016-10-05T03:25:55","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T07:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=81808"},"modified":"2016-10-05T03:25:55","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T07:25:55","slug":"duterte-visits-synagogue-apologize-hitler-remark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/10\/05\/duterte-visits-synagogue-apologize-hitler-remark\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte visits synagogue to apologize for Hitler remark"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Duterte<\/a>
Duterte visited the Beit Yaacov synagogue in Makati city to press his expression of regret. (Photo: Israel in the Philippines\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA, Philippines\u2014Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visited a synagogue in the Manila metropolis Tuesday to personally apologize to the Jewish community for making a \u201cterribly wrong\u201d comparison between his anti-drug campaign and Hitler and the Holocaust in a recent speech.<\/p>\n

Duterte had apologized to the Jewish world in a speech Sunday but he visited the Beit Yaacov synagogue in Makati city to press his expression of regret and assure that he was not racist, adding that his wife, now separated from him, has Jewish ties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to apologize and it comes from the heart,\u201d Duterte told members of the Jewish Association of the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Deriding critics who had compared him to Hitler, Duterte acknowledged he erred in referencing what happened to Jewish people under the Nazi leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mentioned the word Jewish and that was what was terribly wrong and for that I apologize,\u201d Duterte said, drawing an applause. \u201cBut I’m not one of the racist members of this republic.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his original remarks on Friday, Duterte raised the rhetoric over his anti-drug campaign to a new level by comparing it to Hitler and the Holocaust and saying he would be \u201chappy to slaughter\u201d an estimated 3 million Filipino addicts.<\/p>\n

In that speech, the brash president said without elaborating that he has been \u201cportrayed or pictured to be a cousin of Hitler\u201d by his critics.<\/p>\n

Moments later, he said, \u201cHitler massacred 3 million Jews … there’s 3 million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them.\u201d<\/p>\n

His remarks drew shock and outrage across the world. In his apology Monday, he said he had never intended to derogate the memory of the 6 million Jews murdered under Hitler before and during World War II.<\/p>\n

Duterte recalled his modest political roots in his speech at the synagogue and what he said was his sincere desire to rid his country of corruption and crime, especially illegal drugs. He sought understanding for his tough image.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know it’s my character … I am I and you are you,\u201d he said. \u201cGod created me to be in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA, Philippines\u2014Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visited a synagogue in the Manila metropolis Tuesday to personally apologize to the Jewish community …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":81812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[12365,3045,841,2084,343,2444],"class_list":["post-81808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-hitler","tag-holocaust","tag-israel","tag-jews","tag-philippines","tag-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-aaron-favila","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}