Pat Dollard

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Detroit News:

Dearborn —Retired White House correspondent Helen Thomas isn’t backing down from controversial remarks she made this year about Israel that ended her career.

“I stand by it. I told the truth,” the 90-year-old Thomas told reporters shortly before a speech at a diversity conference Thursday. “I paid a price but it’s worth it to speak the truth.”During a speech that drew quick condemnation from Jews, Thomas took her remarks further.

“Congress, the White House and Hollywood, Wall Street are owned by the Zionists,” Thomas said. “No question.”

Thomas, who is of Lebanese descent and grew up on Detroit’s east side, was a speaker at the eighth annual “Images and Perceptions of Arab Americans” conference at the Byblos Banquet Center. A crowd of 200 gave her a standing ovation.

Her speech followed her resignation from Hearst Newspapers in June, after she told an interviewer that Jews should “get the hell out” of the Palestinian territories and go to Germany, Poland or the United States.

Robert Cohen, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit, said Thomas “repeated anti-Semitic stereotypes that have been used for more than a century to incite hatred for Jews.”

Thomas made no apologies.

“I can call the president of the United States anything in the book but I can’t touch Israel,” she said.

Thomas told the crowd the White House press corps jokingly called her as “Hezbollah,” “Hamas” and a “terrorist.” Thomas said she didn’t protest because “I know who I am.”

Also, Thursday, Thomas was the guest of honor at the Arab American National Museum,where a sculpture of her was unveiled during a private reception.