Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) Earlier this month, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad repeated anti-Semitic claims he has made since the 1970s that Jews are “hook-nosed” and that the extent of the holocaust is greatly exaggerated by historians. In an interview with the BBC, Mohamad went on to blame conflict in the Middle East solely on Israel, stating, “If you are going to be truthful, the problem in the Middle East began with the creation of Israel. That is an old truth.” Mohamad is serving as prime minister of Malaysia for the second time, having previously served between 1981 and 2003. Mohamad’s comments are not a new phenomenon, as his published autobiography features comments on Jews such as “the Jews are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.” Mohamad defends his statements by asserting that his discriminatory language is not unique to Jews, but rather that there are “many races in this world, I have said nasty thing about them but they never accuse me of anti this or that.” Mohamad’s comments about the Holocaust are, however, unique to this flavor of his bigotry. Mohamad told the BBC that “you cannot even mention that in the Holocaust it was not six million [Jews who died],” when speaking about his ire towards of Israel. Mohamad’s visit to the United Kingdom, where he gave his BBC interview, was met with controversy and pushback from Jewish groups in Britain. Mohamad visited Imperial College and the University of Oxford as well as the BBC. That Mohamad, who claimed in 2013 that the “Jews rule the world by proxy, [t]hey get others to fight and die for them,” received recent invitations to speak at both academic institutions and the United Nations within one week is disheartening. The Anti-Defamation League chastised the UN, stating, “the world cannot accept this from any leader.” Sadly, Prime Minister Mohamad’s success demonstrates that the world political community accepts this bigotry, with few countries or groups willing to speak out against his bigotry.
Courtesy of WikiMedia Commons In an interview with the Associated Press on August 13th, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad claimed that “Anti-Semitic is a term that is invented to prevent people from criticizing the Jews for doing wrong things.” Prime Minister Mohamad, a proud anti-Semite, explained that “There is one race that cannot be criticized. If you are antisemitic, it seems almost as if you are a criminal. When somebody does wrong, I don’t care how big they are. They may be powerful countries but if they do something wrong, I exercise my right of free speech. They criticize me, why can’t I criticize them?” Prime Minister Mohammad has a long history of anti-Semitism. In 1970, he wrote “the Jews are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.”In 2003, at the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit in Kuala Lumpur, he said, “1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews. There must be a way. And we can only find a way if we stop to think, to assess our weaknesses and our strength, to plan, to strategize and then to counterattack. We are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out. The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. Jews rule this world by proxy.” He is fully aware of his anti-Semitism, as he has also said, “I am glad to be labeled anti-Semitic … How can I be otherwise, when the Jews who so often talk of the horrors they suffered during the Holocaust show the same Nazi cruelty and hard-heartedness towards not just their enemies but even towards their allies should any try to stop the senseless killing of their Palestinian enemies.” While he may claim to be a champion of the Palestinian cause, his rhetoric goes far beyond what could be considered political speech or criticism of Israeli policy. Engaging in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jewish world domination, spreading anti-Semitic stereotypes, equating Israelis with Nazis, and promoting the annihilation of the Jews all count as blatant anti-Semitism.