Jimmy Carter Tells Truth about Palestine but not about Palestinians in Israel

By Genevieve Cora Fraser

Al-Jazeerah, December 8, 2006

Jimmy Carter tells the truth about the impact of the Israeli Occupation on Palestine in "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." In Gaza, Israel is practicing a slow form of genocide where the people are sealed off from the world and encounter non-stop military assaults, he points out. And the Wall Israel is erecting separates Palestinians from Palestinians. The Wall steals Palestinian land just as the illegal settlements do, and is creating a prison. But Carter is far from candid about the crisis in Israel itself, claiming that Arab Israelis enjoy full rights as citizens and that it is a wonderful and open society.

Sure, Arab Israelis can vote and have a few token representatives in the Knesset, but they do not have full rights as citizens - or human rights for that matter. In January, for example, Shimon Peres requested the ethnic cleansing of over 40,000 Arab Israelis from their centuries old villages, the Knesset voted for it, and shortly thereafter the bulldozers arrived. The purpose was to clear out the people to put up luxury condos for Jews-only.

And this summer before the war on Lebanon, Israeli Jews were fighting Jews in riots. The White Ashkenazi Jews didn't like the Middle Eastern Jews driving on their streets or walking on their sidewalks. Why? Because, according to the non-Semite Jews, they are religiously superior to Jews of color. And during the war, it was the Arab Israelis who were killed because Israel had not provided warning sirens or air raid shelters to their communities. Ironically, it was Hezbollah that warned the Arab villages in Southern Israel that they were about to attack.

If you want the facts - read the Israeli papers as I do. Israel is an extremely racist country as anyone who lives there, or has spent time there knows. Whether or not they admit it is another story. Yes, Jimmy Carter would have us believe that Israel behaves one way toward the Palestinian Arabs and in a completely opposite way toward the Arabs in Israel. No, Mr. President, Israeli racism is consistent inside and outside of Israel for Arabs whether they are Jews or non-Jewish.