In a newspaper interview last week, Modena had compared the tactics used by the police in arrest sweeps to the Gestapo. Israeli authorities have deported hundreds of foreign workers from the Philippines and other countries in recent months.
"I wish to withdraw the use of the terms ‘Nazi Gestapo’ and ‘racist’ from the statement I made and I apologize to the Israeli people for the use of these terms," Modena wrote in a letter of apology. "I understand fully that it was a great error on my part."
The letter was Modena’s response after he was called to a meeting Monday with Foreign Ministry Director-General Ron Prosor, who expressed displeasure over the comments, ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
"He should have greater sensitivity and know that sort of comparison is totally unacceptable," Regev said.
The Israeli foreign ministry said it accepted Modena’s apology and now considered the matter closed.
Modena, a former journalist before joining the foreign service, has served just over a year in Israel.
An estimated 300,000 foreign workers live in Israel, many without valid work permits. The foreign laborers include some 30,000 Filipinos, most of them working as maids and caregivers. Amid high unemployment, Israel has begun cracking down on illegal workers.
In a telephone interview, Modena also expressed regret for his comments, but said he hopes they don’t detract from the issue of abuses by immigration police.
He said immigration police have verbally and physically abused Filipinos during arrests to deport them from the country. In one recent operation, an Israeli policeman broke into the bathroom where a Filipina was taking a shower and hit her and her boyfriend, who tried to protect her with a flashlight.
The police often make the sweeps in the middle of the night and confiscate cellular phones, forbidding the foreigners from contacting the embassy, Modena said. He said during seven years of work at the Philippine embassy in France, he did not see such tactics used against illegal immigrants.
At the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), spokesman Alberto Asuque said Modena will return to Manila for "regular home office consultations," which will include the status of Filipino workers in Israel.
He stressed that Modena was not being recalled and would return to his post in Israel, adding that his trip was approved before the controversy over his remarks.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said about eight million Filipino workers abroad "whose remittances are crucial for the country’s fragile economy" are a pillar of Philippine foreign policy and "the promotion of this policy is a major concern of the Philippine embassy in Israel as more and more Filipinos seek employment in the country."
Sen. Ralph Recto said Modena should be welcomed home as a hero for standing up for the rights of Filipinos working in Israel.
"Roll out the red carpet, give him a tickertape parade, decorate him. He’s braver than (boxer) Manny Pacquiao," Recto said in a statement.
He said Modena’s return to Manila is seen in diplomatic circles as a move to cool off the furor sparked by his remarks.
"That’s the spunk we would like to see more often in our foreign service corps. Diplomatic niceties stop when the abuse of our countrymen begins," he said.
According to Recto, Modena cannot be blamed for "resorting to literary flair" in a bid to draw attention to the plight of Filipino workers in Israel.
"He may have gone overboard in making his point, but extremism in defense of our (overseas Filipino workers or OFWs) is a virtue," Recto said.
He pointed out that Modena was responsible for the welfare of about 30,000 Filipinos, "some 22,500 of whom are undocumented. In June 2003, there were about 246 Filipinos detained in Israel. Plus, he has to take care of about 5,000 OFWs in Cyprus."
Recto said Modena’s controversial statement should not cancel the Philippines’ "unassailable pro-Israel credentials."
"We were among the first countries to condemn Nazi atrocities against the Jews. Filipinos mounted a huge anti-Nazi rally in Manila on Nov. 19, 1938, to protest the infamous Kristallnacht, when Nazis destroyed Jewish shops in Germany," he said.
Recto noted that while many countries shunned Jewish refugees, "the Philippines welcomed them with open arms. (Then President Manuel) Quezon established a housing project for them in Marikina and planned to establish a farm settlement for 35,000 Jews in Mindanao."
"We also provided refuge to 10,000 Jews before the war. We were a nation of Schindlers," he said, referring to Nazi wartime supplier Oscar Schindler, who saved hundreds of Jews from the gas chamber by employing them in his factories.
Meanwhile, a pressure group for Filipino overseas workers, Migrante, called for the Israeli government to apologize for the treatment of Filipino workers.
"From segregating Filipino travelers at the back of aircraft on flights to Tel Aviv, the confiscation of cell phones and night raids of overseas Filipino workers’ homes, the Israeli government... should be the one to issue an apology, not Ambassador Modena," according to Migrante chairwoman Connie Bragas-Regalado. — With AP report