Israel readies for upcoming visit of Duterte
JERUSALEM — Israel is gearing up for a visit from the Philippines president, who in the past compared his bloody anti-drug crackdown to Hitler and the Holocaust.
A government statement Friday said Rodrigo Duterte will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and tour the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial early next week.
Duterte drew outrage in 2016 when he compared his anti-drug campaign to the Nazi genocide of Jews in World War II and said he would be "happy to slaughter" 3 million addicts. He later apologized.
Duterte, a 73-year-old former government prosecutor, denies condoning extrajudicial killings but has openly threatened drug dealers with death.
Philippine police say more than 4,500 suspects have been killed in anti-drug raids since Duterte took office in 2016. Rights groups say the death toll is much higher.
President Rodrigo Duterte accepts the invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Israel from Sept. 2-5, 2018.
On Sunday, Israel newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli human rights activists wrote a letter to the country's President Reuven Rivlin asking him not to meet Duterte.
"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," the report said quoting the letter.
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