Mahathir Mohamad
Mahathir MohamadReuters

Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian Prime Minister who last week submitted his resignation following the abrupt collapse of his ruling coalition, denounced US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Deal of the Century” as a “mockery”.

The notoriously anti-Semitic Mohamad made the comments on Friday at the International Conference on the Question of Palestine which was organized by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in partnership with the Government of Malaysia and the Perdana Global Peace Foundation.

Mohamad slammed “the ultimate dishonest brokerage” of Trump’s proposal, saying that his country “finds the plan utterly unacceptable and grossly unjust”.

“Our collective voice regionally should…extend a united front in supporting the rights of the Palestinians,” he said, calling that “the primary purpose of this peace conference.”

Stefan Priesner, UN Resident Coordinator who represented Secretary-General António Guterres at the conference, said that the deteriorating situation on the ground further erodes the possibility of a viable and contiguous Palestine based on the two-state formula.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, emphasized that Palestinians do not need a new plan, but a mechanism to implement existing agreements and UN resolutions.

To defeat the US vision, Palestinians must first “must put our house in order,” and overcome internal divisions, namely between Hamas and the Palestinian National Authority, he added.

That Mohamad is against the US peace plan is no surprise, due to his lengthy history of statements against Israel and Jewish people. In 2012, he wrote on his personal blog that “Jews rule this world by proxy.”

In August of 2018, Mohamad defended his right to be anti-Semitic, arguing that anti-Semitism is an artificial construct created to silence critics of the Jews.

In October that year, he said that Jews are "hook-nosed" and accused them of creating problems in the Middle East.

In June of 2019, he unleashed a stream of anti-Semitic statements during an appearance at Cambridge University.

“I have some Jewish friends, very good friends. They are not like the other Jews, that’s why they are my friends,” Mohamad said in response to a question about previous anti-Jewish statements. The response was met with laughter from some in the audience.

Last September, Mohamad spoke at Columbia University as part of its annual world leaders forum, where he defended his past anti-Semitic statements and questioned the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust.