Helen Thomas may get statue at museum

DEARBORN, Mich., July 29 (UPI) -- A museum near Detroit is raising money for a statue of newswoman Helen Thomas, now controversial because of her remarks about Israel.

The Arab American National Museum began pitching for money online this week, the Detroit Free Press reported. Officials there say $10,000 more is needed.

Thomas, who covered the White House for United Press International for decades, resigned as a Hearst columnist last month. She became the center of a public firestorm when she told a rabbi at a White House event Israelis "should get the hell out of Palestine." She later apologized.

"I just hope that the support for this memorial is there despite her anti-Israel and anti-Semitic views and not because of them," Richard Nodel, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council, told the newspaper.

Thomas, whose parents were immigrants from Lebanon, grew up in Detroit and graduated from Wayne State University. Some Jewish groups have urged the university to remove her name from a diversity award.