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The ex-dean of the White House press corps, 90-year-old former Hearst Newspapers columnist and reporter Helen Thomas, has made more anti-Semitic comments in a public forum, causing her former university in Michigan to drop an award named after her. “We are owned by the propagandists against the Arabs. There’s no question about that. Congress, the White House and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion. They put their money where their mouth is," Thomas told an Arab-American meeting in Dearborn, Michigan. She added: "We are being pushed into a wrong direction in every way."
In response, Wayne State University, from where Thomas graduated in 1942, announced that it would no longer present the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in the Media Award. The university released a statement saying that it "strongly condemns the anti-Semitic remarks made by Helen Thomas."
Thomas is a Detroit native of Lebanese descent. She also made it clear during her speech that she stood by the controversial comments about Israel that led to her resignation as a correspondent earlier this year. She resigned in June after saying at an event at the White House that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine." Asked to elaborate on where the Jews in Israel should go, Thomas said, "Poland, Germany and America, and everywhere else."
Thomas was a White House correspondent since the presidency of John F. Kennedy. Her place in the front row during White House news briefings was sacrosanct for years, complete with a plaque on it bearing her name. It was the only such reserved seat in the room.
