The former United States president Jimmy Carter was facing a revolt from some of his own supporters on Thursday after 14 members of the advisory board of his human rights organisation resigned in protest at his view on Israel and the Palestinians.
Carter has faced a backlash to the argument in his latest book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, for a renewed effort to kick-start the Middle East peace process. The book has been denounced by some commentators as anti-Israeli.
The 200-strong advisory board of the Carter Centre is drawn from prominent local figures in Atlanta, Georgia, where it is based. In a letter to Carter explaining their decision to quit, the 14 members accused him of holding a ”strident and uncompromising position”. They said the book ”portrays the conflict between Israel and her neighbours as a purely one-sided affair with Israel holding all the responsibility for resolving the conflict … It seems that you have turned to a world of advocacy, including even malicious advocacy.”
Carter’s book, which is number five in the New York Times bestseller list for hardback non-fiction, has been the subject of mounting criticism. Last month a fellow of the centre and long-time Carter adviser, Kenneth Stein, became the first to resign.
The book tracks the peace process from Carter’s role as an architect of the 1979 treaty between Egypt and Israel. It blames all sides in the conflict but is especially critical of successive Israeli governments. ”Israeli bad faith fills the pages,” wrote the New York Times book reviewer.
The most vociferous attacks on Carter have come from the pro-Israeli Alan Dershowitz, a professor at Harvard law school. In a series of articles published on a Boston website under the title Ex-President For Sale, Dershowitz has accused Carter of having been in hock to Arab leaders in countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The spat between the two men led to further controversy within Brandeis, a Massachusetts university founded by the Jewish community in the US. Carter declined an invitation to speak there because he would have had to debate with Dershowitz. On Thursday, Carter announced that he would speak at the university this month, but only after the law professor had been taken off the ticket.
His spokesperson said he would be happy to answer all questions.
Dershowitz said he would be at the event and ask questions from the floor. ”I will be the first person to have my hand up. I guarantee they won’t stop me from attending,” he told the Associated Press.
Part of the reason reaction to Carter’s book has been so fervent has been his use of the word apartheid to describe the lot of Palestinians, a comparison with the former racist regime in South African vehemently rejected by Israel. – Guardian Unlimited Â