Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tried to explain the message behind his eyebrow-raising ‘Holocaust can be forgiven’ phrase was gravely distorted, and the following uproar is used to cause bad blood with his “Jewish friends.”

“My speech was never meant to be used in a historical context,” and its other interpretations only serve those “who want to push me away from my Jewish friends,” Bolsonaro wrote in a statement, shared by Israel’s envoy to Brazil, Yossi Shelley, on social media.

Shelley said that he had earlier asked Bolsonaro to explain the comments on the Holocaust he made at an Evangelical event this week. The Brazilian leader’s phrase “We can forgive, but we cannot forget” the killing of millions of Jews during WWII quickly drew criticism from Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin and Yad Vashem, the nation’s leading Holocaust memorial center. Bolsonaro’s comments were also slammed online.

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A right-wing politician, Bolsonaro closely aligns himself with Israel and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Two weeks ago, he undertook a four-day trip to the country, during which he visited Yad Vashem.

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