Malaysia Firm in Considering Israel a Criminal State: Mahathir Mohamad
"We stand by our principles that Israel is a criminal state. It has broken many international laws and no one is saying anything about it.
“We have the right to voice our feeling and have our own policies (on the matter).
“I don’t understand why one must follow them. But, we don’t,” he told reporters after meeting the government statutory bodies, here, today.
He was asked to comment on International Paralympic Committee's (IPC) decision to strip Malaysia of the right to host the 2019 world para swimming championships following the country's move to ban Israeli athletes from participating.
The championships, a qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, had been scheduled for Kuching between July 29 and Aug 4.
Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country that does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, had announced this month that it would bar Israelis from any event held in the country.
Israel had condemned the ban as ‘shameful’.
In this respect, Mahathir said he has no issue with IPC’s decision.
“If we cannot host the paralympic event, we can host other games,” said the prime minister.
On his decision in allowing Israel cricket team to play to Malaysia in 1997 when he was the prime minister then, he said he had reasons for doing so.
“I even allowed Israeli school children to come to Malaysia too. We did so to show them that Muslims are not terrorists.
“We are normal people. We talk to people. We behave well. We don’t do anything wrong to them.
“But, when children throw stone at them (the Zionist regime), they are shot with live bullets,” he added.
Mahathir also questioned why no one complained when people from five Muslim nations were barred from entering the United States.
"There were also other European nations that barred certain people from certain countries too.
“This is a normal thing. We stand on our principle,” he said.
Source: New Straits Times
