By Clara Chooi
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 ― Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today expressed joy at being labelled anti-Semitic, even lashing out at the Jews for displaying the same cruelty and hard-heartedness as the German Nazis.
The former prime minister, who has previously made headlines for his anti-Semitic views and strong support for the Palestinian struggle, was writing in his blog (chedet.co.cc) here to criticise an Israeli court’s decision declaring the state blameless in the death of American activist Rachel Corrie.
The young Corrie was killed in 2003 after a bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier ran her over while she was attempting to stop the massive vehicle from pulling down Palestinian homes in Gaza.
“It is a travesty of justice for the court to decide it was an accident, that the soldier driving the bulldozer could not see the girl,” Dr Mahathir wrote.
He pointed out that he had often enough sat in the driver’s seat of a bulldozer or mechanical hoe, and had always been able to see everything in front of him clearly.
But the Israeli court, when deciding on the case brought against Tel Aviv by Corrie’s mother, had decided on August 28 to side with the Jewish soldier who said he had not been able to see the young activist trying to flag the vehicle down. According to a report on the BBC, the court had labelled it a “regrettable incident” but said it was not Israel’s fault.
“The judge must be as cold-hearted as the soldier for the pain he inflicted on the grieving mother,” Dr Mahathir raged today.
“I am glad to be labelled anti-Semitic,” he went on.
“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,” Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister continued.
Dr Mahathir has always been blunt on the topic of Israel, often condemning the Zionist regime in its war with the Palestinians.
In his widely-reported speech during the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in 2003, the feisty politician had raised eyebrows when he said that the “the Nazis killed six million Jews out of 12 million (during the Holocaust). But today, the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them”.
Today, Dr Mahathir continued to drive home a similar point, adding this time that any sympathy accorded to the victims of the Holocaust was “wasted and misplaced”.