HISTORIC VIDEO – PRESIDENT CARTER CALLS OUT ISRAEL AS APARTHEID
December 10, 2023MUST WATCH TILL THE END*
Former US President Carter was interviewed in 2007 by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now to discuss the Israeli occupation in Palestine.
Carter is the only American president with the courage to call out Israel for its apartheid policies, and persecution of the Palestinians.
Carter stated: “…the other definition of apartheid is one side dominates the other, and the Israelis completely dominate the life of the Palestinian people…it’s a terrible human rights persecution that far transcends what any outsider would imagine. And there are powerful political forces in America that prevents any objective analysis of the problem in the Holy Land.”
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English Script:
Former US President Carter: The word apartheid is exactly accurate. This is an area that’s occupied by two powers. They’re now completely separated. The Palestinians can’t even ride on the same roads that the Israelis have created or built in Palestinian territory. The Israelis never see a Palestinian except Israeli soldiers.
So within Palestinian territory, they are absolutely and totally separated. Much worse than they were in South Africa, by the way. And the other thing is the other definition of apartheid is one side dominates the other, and the Israelis completely dominate the life of the Palestinian people.
Interviewer: Why don’t Americans know what you have seen?
Former US President Carter: Americans don’t want to know, and many Israelis don’t want to know what is going on inside Palestine. It’s a it’s a terrible human rights persecution that is far transcends what any outsider would imagine. And there are powerful political forces in America that prevents any objective analysis of the problem in the Holy Land.
I think it is accurate to say that not a single member of Congress with whom I’m familiar with, would possibly speak out and call for Israel to withdraw to their legal boundaries or to publicize the plight of the Palestinians or even to call publicly and repeatedly for good faith peace talks. There hadn’t been a day of peace talks now in more than seven years.
So this is a taboo subject. And I would say that if any member of Congress did speak out, as I’ve just described, they would probably not be back in the Congress the next term.
Interviewer: Who are these forces that you’re talking about?
Former US President Carter: Well, there’s an inherent commitment in America which I share as a Christian, of a deep commitment to make sure that Israel is safe and that Israel is free and that they can seek for peace.
So there’s a strong inclination for all of us to support Israel’s continued existence in peace, and that is headed on to by the very effective work of the American Israeli group called AIPAC, which is performing its completely legitimate task of convincing Americans to support the policies of the Israeli government and AIPAC is not dedicated to peace. They’re dedicated to inducing the maximum support in America, in the White House, in the Congress and in the public media for whatever policies the Israeli government has at a particular time, and they’re extremely effective.
And AIPAC I think was organized in the distant past I think when Eisenhower was president, and they have grown in influence. In some ways they are to be admired.
Interviewer:Did they influence you as president?
Former US President Carter: Not really, because I was immune from those pressures, when I was elected president I came out of nowhere. Nobody thought I was going to win until the last minute.
And so I wasn’t obligated to them. And I worked assiduously almost every day of my term as president to bring peace to Israel and also peace to Israel’s neighbors. And we negotiated a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, not a word of which has ever been violated. So I don’t think there was any doubt that my commitment then and now was to see Israel have peace, living in harmony with its neighbors and justice as well, and peace for Israel’s neighbors.
Interviewer: President Carter, when did you come to understand through your presidency and beyond the situation of the Palestinians?
Former US President Carter: Well, the situation with the Palestinians when I was president was not all that bad. The first time I went to Israel, I was governor and I went to the West Bank. There were only 1500 settlers in all of the West Bank.
And general presumption even by Israeli leaders with whom I met was that Israel would withdraw from the Palestinian territories. It was a temporary thing. And when I negotiated an agreement with the prime minister of Israel Menachim Begin, he agreed that the political forces and the military forces of Israelis would be withdrawn from Palestinian territory. That’s all in a written agreement.
But in the last ten years, I would say the situation has deteriorated rapidly. Not many people are permitted to go and visit, as we have done. For instance, members of B’tselim, the outstanding human rights organization within Israel. Those members are not permitted to go into areas of the West Bank. They have to observe from a distance what goes on, say, in Gaza now.
But on three occasions, the Carter Center, led by me personally, have been invited by the Palestinians to monitor their election. In 1996, when Arafat was elected president and the first parliament, so-called, was elected again after Arafat died, when Mahmoud Abbas was elected president. And then in 2006 in January, when the Hamas ran for parliamentary seats and they were successful.
So in performing the duty of monitoring election, we are obligated to go to every village and every town in the entire West Bank and also throughout Gaza to see what’s going on. So we could see the terrible plight of the Palestinians. The fact that Israel has over 200 settlements on Palestinian territory, all fortified, that Israel has over 500 checkpoints in Palestine, where the Palestinians can’t move from one place to another, and where there is a wall being built completely surrounding Gaza, completely surrounding Bethlehem and other substantial cities, deeply intruding into Palestinian territory and encompassing more and more land for the Israelis to take away from Palestine.
And the fact is that the West Bank is a tiny little place that was carved out for the Palestinians, just 22% of the total land. But the problem is that Israel wants to take that 22% and control it.
And this is a major obstacle to having what I want and what most Israelis want, but an overwhelming majority, and that is peace.
Interviewer: At this conference, you describe the wall as worse than the Berlin Wall.
Former US President Carter: Oh, it’s much worse. The Berlin Wall was built by the communists on the communist side of the border between East and West Germany. As you know, this wall is built on Palestinian land, and it’s designed not for security. That’s an ancillary benefit, but it goes deep within the West Bank just to carve out more and more land for the Israelis to occupy in Palestine.
Interviewer: What is the point of the wall?
Former US President Carter: The wall was built, was planned originally by Yitzhak Rabin when he was prime minister. He’s the one that negotiated the Oslo agreement, a peace agreement to be built along the border, the 1967 border between Israel and Palestine and the International War Court, and I and others approved completely. There’s nothing wrong with that.
That would have been like the Berlin Wall. But then Rabin was assassinated and his successors, uh, Netanyahu and Sharon and others, decided, let’s move the wall from the Israeli border to intrude deeply within Palestine, to carve out some of that precious land for the Israeli settlers to occupy.
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