Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Photo: Reuters / Lai Seng Sin.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir bin Mohamad, is being feted during a two part visit to Britain despite a long history of antisemitic statements and a virulent anti-Israel speech delivered at the General Assembly of the United Nations last week.

According to the UK’s Daily Mail, on his initial arrival in Britain last week, Mohamad first visited Imperial College, where he was warmly welcomed by the vice-president and provost. He followed this with a visit to Oxford University, where he gave a speech at the Centre for Islamic Studies. He will shortly deliver a speech at Chatham House, a major British think tank.

The Chairman of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, Gideon Falter, told the Mail, “It is utterly appalling that at a time when antisemitism is so raw, a man who is proud to be an antisemite is being courted. It is equally unforgivable that he was invited to tour our most prominent educational institutions and share his opinions with students.”

“Those who have extended the red carpet treatment to this abhorrent racist and self-confessed antisemite must apologize,” he added. “We are looking into whether universities may have breached their own codes on racist speakers.”

Mohamad is perhaps one of the world’s most powerful antisemites. He has said that he is “glad to be labelled anti-Semitic” and equated the Jews with the Nazis.

“The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million,” he said in 2013. “But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.”

In 2010, he stated, “Jews had always been a problem in European countries. They had been confined in ghettos and periodically massacred. But they still remained and still thrived and held whole governments to ransom. Even after their massacre by the Nazis in Germany, they survived to be a source of even greater problems to the world.”

Mohamad has also asserted that Jews “are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.”

In his UN speech on Friday, Mohamad blamed Israel for world terrorism and endorsed the Palestinian “right of return,” which would entail the destruction of the Jewish state by weight of demography.

Saying “this present war against the terrorist will not end until the root causes are found,” Mohamad asked, “What are the root causes? In 1948, Palestinian land was seized to form the state of Israel. The Palestinians were massacred and forced to leave their land. Their houses and farms were seized.”

Apparently referring to the 1967 Six Day War, he added, “They tried to fight a conventional war with help from sympathetic neighbors. The friends of Israel ensured this attempt failed. More Palestinian land was seized. And Israeli settlements were built on more and more Palestinian land and the Palestinians are denied access to these settlements built on their land.”

The Six Day War was the result of the massing of Arab armies on Israel’s borders with the declared intention of annihilating Israel.

Regarding Palestinian violence, Mohamad declared, “The Palestinians fired ineffective rockets which hurt no one. Massive retaliations were mounted by Israel, rocketing and bombing hospitals, schools and other buildings, killing innocent civilians including school children and hospital patients.”

He condemned the US’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying it was “deliberately provoking Palestine.”

Referring to the Palestinian use of terrorism, Mohamad said, “It is the anger and frustration of the Palestinians and their sympathizers that cause them to resort to what we call terrorism.”

“Let the Palestinians return to reclaim their land,” said Mohamad, endorsing the right of return. “Let there be a state of Palestine. Let there be justice and the rule of law. Warring against them will not stop terrorism. Nor will out-terrorising them succeed.”