Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by former Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim Al-Ja'fari, which aired on Al-Alam TV on January 29, 2012:

Ibrahim Al-Ja'fari: In some countries, people have been blinded by the truth. Many of the [Republicans] candidates in the coming elections scramble to bring Palestine down. Republican candidate Newt [Gingrich] even said that the Palestinians are an invented, artificial people. The Palestinian people is invented?! Palestine, with its thousands of years, since it was the land of Canaan, which evolved into Palestine – that deep-rooted Arab and Muslim country… That is the invented people?! Or is it, with all due respect to the American nation…

I am not a racist, but if I examine the history of the rise of societies, America is not the American people. The American people are the Indians. This is a problem in America. They suffer from a complex, because America has a short history. It has no history. Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. That was yesterday. America was founded only recently. The Arabs and the Muslims, on the other hand, are the pioneers of civilization.

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