DUP man: Joe Brolly 'has gone beyond the pale' with his comparison of Israel with racist extermination by the Nazis

Lord Weir told the News Letter the cartoon was “fairly disgusting and disgraceful” and that “I think in many ways it belittles the Holocaust”.

Mr Brolly – who laments both the killing of Palestinians by Israelis, and vice-versa – has defended his online post, saying the cartoon he tweeted out shows real parallels between Nazi actions and Israel’s conduct.

Lord Weir said: “There is an argument that once someone makes a spurious comparison with the Nazis or the Holocaust or Hitler, whoever introduced that into the argument has lost the argument.

"It's deeply, deeply offensive to make anything by way of comparison with the greatest evils perpetrated in human history. To suggest there are parallels with this is just really beyond the pale."

Mr Brolly said: “There are striking parallels with the Nazis’ destruction of the Jewish people in the Warsaw ghetto. A powerful military destroying a defenceless population.

"A population that in spite of everything had their own hospitals and orchestras and schools. The only difference now is that there are cameras and mobile phones.

"It is monstrous, whatever label you put on it.”

A fuller account of Mr Brolly’s comments, and his rationale for them, can be found here:

• Brolly says 'parallels between Israeli actions and Nazi extermination of Warsaw Ghetto are striking' after posting image online showing a swastika inside a Star of David

At time of writing, the Palestinian death toll (as reported by the Hamas-run Gazan health ministry) was approaching – or had already reached – 10,000, a result of the Israeli response to the murder of about 1,400 of its citizens and kidnapping of over 200 more.