A United Nations committee is to work with a non-governmental organisation founded by former Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, who once stated he was “glad to be labelled antisemitic”.

In New York on Tuesday, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) granted accreditation to five civil society organisations, including the Perdana Global Peace Foundation, founded by Mr Mohamad.

CEIRPP Chairman Abdu Salam Diallo praised Mr Mohamad as a leader “emblematic of people on the international scene” and continued to “thank him and congratulate him for everything he has done in his political career and for the Palestinian people”.

Mr Mohamad made several antisemitic comments during and after his time as Malaysian prime minister from 1981-2003. At the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in 2003, Mr Mohamad said: “Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them. They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong so they may enjoy equal rights with others. With these, they have now gained control.”

Last year, after an Israeli court decided that the IDF had not been to blame for the death of pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie, Mr Mohamad commented: “I am glad to be labelled antisemitic. How can I be otherwise, when the Jews who so often talk of the horrors they suffered during the Holocaust show the same Nazi cruelty… towards not just their enemies but even towards their allies?”

I am glad to be labelled antisemitic. How could I be otherwise?

NGO Monitor president Gerald Steinberg said: “CEIRPP illustrates the immoral role played by the UN generally, and the degree to which this international framework has been tainted by anti-Israel hatred.”