"Gaza is like a cage in which 1.5 million Palestinians live, 75% of which are refugees."
"If you look up an English dictionary, apartheid means the domination of one people by another and the formal separation of these two peoples [!]. This is what is already happening in the West Bank. Israel is clearly the dominant power and requires by law the total separation between Jewish settlers and Palestinians. That's why I use the word apartheid."
"When I meet with Hamas leaders, they clearly state that they will accept any peace treaty negotiated between Abbas and Israel that is approved by referendum by the Palestinian people."
Jimmy Carter was in Switzerland where he gave an interview to two newspapers Le Temps (Switzerland) and Le Soir (Belgium). He reiterated his vicious accusations against Israel - Israel has apartheid policies and is not a democracy - while whitewashing Hamas. His allegations are in stark contrast with the apologies he offered to the U.S. Jewish community in 2009 : Carter offers Jewish community ‘Al Het’, Jimmy Carter to U.S. Jews: Forgive me for stigmatizing Israel and Carter: Grandson’s race not reason enough to apologize ...
Unauthorized translation of excerpts of Jimmy Carter's interview:
Jimmy Carter's "strong views on the Israeli occupation have earned him much sympathy in the Arab world and the contempt of the Israeli governement. Jimmy Carter is back from a trip to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner delivers his analysis.
How was your last trip?
The Palestinians' situation is as follows: in Israel, they are subject to 35 laws which discriminate specifically non-Jewish citizens, who were denied the right to own land, to marriage, to travel, to have access to medical care and the media. In East Jerusalem - occupied by Israel - the Palestinians are not treated as citizens. The Silwan community, where there are 55,000 Arabs, has no playground and there is no school building. Jerusalem Mayor apologized while explaining that he was planning a tourist and archaeological site there. The Arabs who have lived there for sixty-five years will be forced to leave. In the West Bank, more than 300,000 Israeli settlers have confiscated land and properties off the Palestinians to build their own houses. Finally and even worse, Gaza is like a cage in which 1.5 million Palestinians live, 75% of which are refugees.
What do you think of Barack Obama's position on this issue?
[...] Most Arabs and Palestinians believe that this dialogue is unproductive and that it merely provides an excuse for Israel to pursue the settlements. [...]
Why are the United States so close to Israel?
The same can be said of the Europeans. Firstly, there is a very powerful Israeli political lobby in the United States. Then there is a natural belief that Israel is a great democracy like ours somewhere in the Middle East. Americans see Israel as a small country besieged by hundreds of millions of hostile Arabs - but the truth of the matter is that thanks to the United States Israel has the most advanced military capability in the planet. I must underline that the Carter Center has helped to oversee some 80 problematic elections in the world. The best three elections that we oversaw were in Palestine: when Arafat was elected, the election of Mahmoud Abbas and the 2006 elections. When Hamas won the elections, Israel and the United States said that they were terrorists in order to prevent them from ruling the Palestinian territories while a few months earlier they were considered as legitimate candidates. When I meet with Hamas leaders, they clearly state that they will accept any peace treaty negotiated between Abbas and Israel that is approved by referendum by the Palestinian people. [The last sentence can be found on Le Soir version of the interview.]
Don't you think that Israel is a democracy?
They have democratic elections for their own people. But, as I said, they have specific laws that prohibit equal treatment for non-Jews. This includes 1.5 million Arabs (20% of the population) and about 320,000 others who are neither Jewish nor Arab. I'm not saying that Israel is not a democracy, but it is not a democracy like ours.
You are definitely the highest raking personnality to have used the term "apartheid" to describe the situation in the West Bank and Gaza ...
The title of my book was Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Apartheid is the right word to describe what will happen if we move towards the seemingly inevitable solution of one state where Israel must either abandon the political control to the Palestinians who will represent the majority of the population or by depriving the majority of its rights to vote. This will be by definition an apartheid regime. If you look up an English dictionary, apartheid means the domination of one people by another and the formal separation of these two peoples. This is what is already happening in the West Bank. Israel is clearly the dominant power and requires by law the total separation between Jewish settlers and Palestinians [Israël est de toute évidence la puissance dominante et requiert légalement la totale séparation entre colons juifs et Palestiniens.]. That's why I use the word apartheid."
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