A Biden appointee appeared to suggest that Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 terror attacks waged by Hamas was similar to the conduct of Nazis during the Holocaust, according to a report Tuesday.
Aditi Somani, who currently works on racial equity issues for the Treasury Department, reposted the comparison to her Instagram story, according to Politico. The original post claimed more children were killed in Gaza each day than those killed during the Holocaust daily.
“The number of kids killed daily by Nazis at Auschwitz: 127. The number of kids killed daily by Israel in Gaza: 178,” the original post said. “If you are not standing up for the kids in Gaza; I know for a fact you would have never stood up for the kids in Auschwitz.”
“I will never again question how the world stood by and allowed the Holocaust to happen,” Somani wrote beside the reposted message.
SCOOP: A Biden appointee, Treasury’s Aditi Somani, who also used to work in the WH, used her Instagram to implicitly compare the Israeli response to what the Nazis did in the Holocaust — the latest sign of tensions inside the administration over Israel. https://t.co/5lCeMB50PR pic.twitter.com/HghmDGeDnB
— Daniel Lippman (@dlippman) December 12, 2023
Somani responded to recent reports regarding the Israeli military and the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza in another Instagram Story post, according to the outlet.
“MEDICAL professionals around the world should be indignant at the atrocities happening at the hands of the IOF,” Somani wrote. “The targeting of hospitals, the sniping of patients trying to flee, the shelling of refugee tents outside of hospitals, at bombing of children’s cancer wards, the denial of electricity for NICU incubators. This is BARBARIC.”
“Targeting hospitals is a WAR CRIME,” Somani continued. “End this nightmare and drag all the Israeli leaders to The Hague.”
Somani expressed her support for pro-Palestinian protestors who shut down the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, saying “Bay Area holding it down, hell yeah!” accompanied by an applause emoji, the outlet reported. The former Oval Office operations employee responded to reports of the Jabaliya refugee camp bombing by stating “US-made bombs. These are our tax dollars.” (RELATED: Biden Tells Donors Israel Must Change its Government To Continue Receiving Global Support)
“When else in history have we seen images like this? Civilians stripped, blindfolded, tied to one another, detained,” Somani wrote beside a photograph from Gaza. “My heart is so heavy for the men and boys of Gaza. I am sick to my stomach.”
Somani declined to comment on the matter, according to the outlet. However, the Treasury spokesperson issued a statement.
“We mourn for the victims of the atrocities committed on October 7th, the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and also mourn for innocent Palestinian civilians who have lost their lives in this conflict. Every life lost is heartbreaking,” the Treasury spokesperson said. “The administration supports Israel’s right to defend itself against a terrorist threat and will continue to press Israeli counterparts to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties, even as Hamas shamefully embeds itself among civilians, using innocent Palestinians as human shields.”