Sweden's housing minister, Mehmet Kaplan, resigned on Monday partly over comments he made seven years ago comparing Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany, increasing pressure on an already unpopular government.

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At the weekend, daily Svenska Dagbladet reported comments made by Kaplan in 2009, before he became a minister, when he said "Israelis treat Palestinians in a way that is very like that in which Jews were treated during Germany in the 1930s."

"Mehmet Kaplan's overall assessment of the situation is that he will not be able to act as a minister and I share that assessment," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven of the Social Democrats told a news conference.

Mehmet Kaplan (Photo: Reuters)

Relations between Sweden and Israel hit rock bottom in 2014 when the Social Democrat-Green government recognized the Palestinian state

Kaplan, who was born in Turkey, has also come under criticism for attending a dinner attended by a representative of an ultra-nationalist Turkish organization.

Kaplan told reporters he rejected "all forms of extremism whether they are nationalistic, religious or in any other form".