Malaysia Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has stressed that Israelis should not come to Malaysia as the country does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

Dr Mahathir said Malaysia had the right to keep its border closed to certain people, especially from countries the nation feels are doing a lot of wrong things.

“Many nations today are seeing outsiders coming to their countries and are not very happy about it. They overthrow their governments because they allow immigrants to come in.

“So, a country has the right to keep its border closed to certain people, that is why the border is there, but in Malaysia, we have no diplomatic relations with Israel at all and we feel that they are doing a lot of wrong things but getting away with them because nobody dares to say anything against them,” he said after delivering the Oxford Union talk that was broadcast live by Astro Awani from London early today.

The prime minister said this when asked by Oxford Union president Daniel Wilkinson on Malaysia’s ban on Israeli athletes’ participation in the World Para Swimming Championships to be held in Sarawak in July.

The talk and interview thereafter were also uploaded on Dr Mahathir’s official Facebook account.

New Straits Times

BDST: 1745 HRS, JAN 19, 2019
SI