Mohammad Mahathir, the 93-year-old prime minister of Malaysia who returned to power after a 15-year hiatus following his victory in this year’s elections, criticized the state of Israel and the privileged position of Jews in the modern world. It all started with Mahathir’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, a significant part of which focused on the cruel policies of the Zionists against the Palestinians. But yesterday, in an interview with the BBC’s HardTalk program, Mahathir went further.
He said that the Israelis were trying to get a special status, in particular by banning discussion of the number of Holocaust victims. According to Mahathir, there were not 6 million victims, as is commonly believed, but 4 million. When the journalist quoted him as saying that «even after the Jews survived the massacre orchestrated by the Nazis, they continued to be the world’s main problem,» Mahathir simply smiled.
Furthermore, when the journalist pointed out that in one of his books he referred to Jews as «hook-nosed» and as people who understand money by instinct, and asked if such a statement was acceptable for a prime minister, Mahathir replied that Malaysians are called lazy and big-nosed, and they don’t care. He added that it was the opinion of those people, while he was expressing his own opinion. When the journalist asked for clarification on whether he still held that opinion, Mahathir replied that if we call things by their proper names, all the problems in the Middle East started with the creation of Israel. When the indefatigable journalist asked, «But why do you call them hook-nosed?», Mahathir replied, «Because they are hook-nosed».
Below we present the interview with Mahathir in English (the specified segment starts at 19:10 min). We do not comment on Mr. Mahathir’s statements, but we declare that we stand for friendship among nations, world peace, all that is good, and against all that is bad.