Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas may get statue in museum

Supporters of the initiative in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit and the town with the second largest Arab community in the United States, are trying to raise money to have the copper statue constructed and put in the local museum.

But Thomas' remarks that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home" to Poland and Germany, which abruptly ended her 67-year-career, are not helping the cause.

"There are people who don’t want to donate because of it," said Anan Ameri, the Arab American National Museum's director. According to museum sources, some $30,000 is needed to have the statue erected.

Ameri said he does not think Thomas herself believes in what she said. "She did good things during her career and contributed a lot and opened doors for women in this country," he said.

Thomas, who will be turning 90 on Wednesday, is a member of the museum's advisory board, and the museum has launched a 45-day online campaign to gather the remaining $10,000 that is needed to erect the statue, which is being constructed by former news photographer and sculptor Susan McElhinney.