Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has found himself at the center of another controversy after saying that the murder of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany was the “greatest publicity” for Jews internationally.
He made the remark on Wednesday while speaking to reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after returning from an official four-day visit to Israel, where he visited Yad Vashem — Israel’s official Holocaust memorial.
He had been invited by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to attend the 33rd International Mayors’ Conference there.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of Taipei City Government
Before embarking on a one-day bicycle journey from Taipei to Kaohsiung yesterday, Ko was asked by reporters if he believed he had misspoken.
“How were [the comments] misspoken?” he replied.
Israelis take the Holocaust very seriously, he said.
“I asked myself: ‘Why is Israel so united?’ It is because historically, there was a period of much pain,” Ko said, referring to Adolf Hitler’s 12-year reign over Germany from 1933 to 1945.
“I later discovered that Israelis treat this incident as an important [opportunity for] international education or international publicity,” he said.
“That is also an important reason why Israelis worldwide are so united [in their] cooperation,” he added.
Taiwan Radical Wings’ Taipei office yesterday criticized Ko for the comments.
In 1947, from Feb. 28 through the end of March, many people in Taiwan were killed by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime, the office said on Facebook.
Seventy-two years later, politicians “as cold-blooded [and] ignorant as [Ko],” as well as ones who are “unremorseful” and “insist on opposing transitional justice” still exist in Taiwan, it said.
Even today, the entire truth about the 228 Incident is unknown and none of the perpetrators have been investigated, it added.
The 228 Incident refers to protesters being shot by security personnel of the then-KMT regime at the Governor-General’s Office in Taipei (now the Executive Yuan building) on Feb. 28, 1947.
That escalated into widespread anti-government protests, which where suppressed in a brutal crackdown, followed by the imposition of martial law, a period now known as the White Terror.
Taiwan Radical Wings said that it mourns the martyrs who were innocently sacrificed.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
RSS