Malaysia’s anti-Semitic Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad resigns

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad gives a speech in Vladivostok, Russia, September 5, 2019. Image by VLADIMIR SMIRNOV/AFP/Getty Images

(JTA) — Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has described Jews as “hook-nosed” and blamed Israel for the unrest in the Middle East, has resigned.

Mohamad, the world’s oldest leader at 94, submitted his resignation to the country’s king Monday, AFP reported. He had agreed to step down and hand power to his former rival, Anwar Ibrahim, after they joined their parties to form a coalition government following national elections in 2018.

Mohamad was in his second stint as prime minister after serving previously from 1981 to 2003.

He has said that he is proud to be called an anti-Semite. Mohamad wrote on his personal blog in 2012 that “Jews rule this world by proxy,” and has asserted that “America is very much under Jewish influence.”

In his 1970 book “The Malay Dilemma,” Mohamad wrote that “the Jews are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.” He also has questioned the fact that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, saying the figure was 4 million.

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