A piece in a South African Jewish weekly that says Archbishop Desmond Tutu is equivalent to Adolf Hitler in his desire “to kill Jews,” as evidenced by his criticisms of Israel, has been taken down. The link at the South African Jewish Report takes you to a 404 message. The Mail and Guardian of South Africa reports that the piece was unpublished.

The original piece had the graphic above. “Arch no better than Hitler or Stalin says Reich,” was the headline. South African Likud chair Leon Reich wrote:

Just as it was more important for Hitler to kill Jews than to protect the fatherland in the last days of the war so it is more important for Tutu to kill Jews rather to protect his fellow Christians. Why your silence Bishop Tutu regarding the human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, China, Iraq. The murder of 200,000 innocent people in Syria the recent beheadings of two journalists to mention but a few? The true apartheid is on your doorstep, where people are living in corrugated iron shacks without running water, electricity and sanitation. Nowhere in Israel or the disputed territories are people living like that.

Tutu’s great crime, per Reich, is supporting BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against Israel while not speaking out against Gaza’s rockets:

Archbishop Tutu knows that Hamas, Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Boko Haram and ISIS have a commonality in that they persecute Jews, Yazidis and Christians alike, such as the ancient Christian community in Iraq.

So Tutu is for destroying the Jewish state rather than preserving a state that will save mankind through such innovations as drip-irrigation, Reich argues. And that puts him the company of those “Constantly self-appointed destructors of the Jewish people [who] appear in every generation.”

The Mail and Guardian in South Africa says that leading South African Jews were disturbed that the piece ran:

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) has distanced itself from an op-ed piece published in the South African Jewish Report that likens Archbishop Desmond Tutu to tyrants Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. The piece titled “Arch no better than Hitler or Stalin” was written by Likud SA chairperson, Leon Reich, and accuses Tutu of inciting populace against the Jews. Reich claims: “[Tutu] would kill the Jews before protecting Christians”, and accuses Tutu – together with Hamas – of wanting to destroy the Israeli state and the seven million Jews living in Israel… SAJBD condemned the op-ed. Chairperson Mary Kluk said it was “particularly upsetting” to see the misuse of the Holocaust/Nazi analogy coming from the Jewish community. “The offensiveness of the piece was compounded by an accompanying image of Tutu with a Hitler-style moustache and the Nazi officers’ cap.

That piece includes a defense of the publication by SAJR’s online editor Ant Katz as a demonstration of free speech. He told the Mail & Guardian:

“We try not to censor people’s views. The Jewish community [in South Africa] is quite angry about the situation in South Africa with only one side being heard.” He added: “There isn’t too much for me to say other than we offer a broad platform from the most left-wing to the most right-wing. “It’s a platform for Jewish people to communicate. We obviously have a wide range of different views.”

Katz has evidently bethought that idea, because the piece is down.