Israel denounces Castro “swastika” remarks

Israel denounced comments on Monday by former Cuban president Fidel Castro, who compared the Israeli treatment of Palestinians to the Nazi extermination of Jews, an example of heated rhetoric at a U.N. body’s debate.

Castro’s remarks were issued by Cuba’s diplomatic mission in Geneva amid debate in the 47-nation United Nations Human Rights Council on Israeli action in the occupied territories.

“The hatred felt by the state of Israel against the Palestinians is such that they would not hesitate to send the one and a half million men, women and children of that country to the crematoria where millions of Jews of all ages were exterminated by the Nazis,” the ex-Cuban leader said.

“It would seem that the Fuehrer’s (Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s) swastika is today Israel’s banner,” the 83-year-old Castro declared in the latest of a series of articles dubbed “reflections” in the communist-ruled island’s media.