June 5th, 2007 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: B'tselem, NGOs, Separation Barrier

Jimmy Carter’s widely condemned 2006 book “Peace Not Apartheid” was found problematic for a number of reasons. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz provided one of the more salient critiques, outlining the numerous omissions and misrepresentations throughout the book, also pointing out that Carter virtually ignores ongoing Palestinian terrorism.

Further underscoring the lack of credibility in “Peace Not Apartheid” is Carter’s reliance on politicized NGOs for facts and explanations. On page 116, Carter cites the Israeli NGO B’Tselem on the topic of house demolitions, writing that on “on average, twelve innocent families lost their homes for every person accused of participation in attacks against Israelis, with almost half of the demolished homes never occupied by anyone suspected of involvement in any violent act against Israel, even throwing stones.” As documented by NGO Monitor, B’tselem has provided misleading and inaccurate information, most recently in a May 6th 2007 report criticized by the Israeli Ministry of Justice as being “fraught with mistakes, groundless claims, and inaccuracies.”

On page 195 during his discussion of Israel’s security barrier, Carter writes that “the best description of the barrier, its routing and impact, is shown in the film The Iron Wall” produced by the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), a highly biased organization that has endorsed numerous boycott and divestment initiatives against Israel. A co-organizer of the “Apartheid Wall Campaign,” PARC has argued that Israel invented a security threat to its people in order to “spread out its control over the whole region.” Carter’s disinterest in providing accurate information about the Middle East is further emphasized by his reliance on NGOs with clear political agendas.