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Former President Jimmy Carter (file)
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| By Associated Press January 12, 2007 |
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Fourteen members of a Carter Center advisory board, who worked to build support for the human rights organization started by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, have resigned in protest over Carter's latest book.
The resignations, announced Thursday, are the latest in a backlash against Carter's book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," which has drawn fire from Jewish groups, been attacked by fellow Democrats and led to the resignation last month of Kenneth Stein, a Carter Center fellow and a longtime Carter adviser.
In their letter of resignation, the members of the Center's Board of Councilors wrote of Carter, "you have clearly abandoned your historic role of broker in favor of becoming an advocate for one side."
The board is responsible for building public support for the Carter Center. It is not the organization's governing board. Carter Center Executive Director John Hardman said Thursday in a written statement that the board's members "are not engaged in implementing work of the Center."
Hardman offered no further comment other than thanking the resigning members for their service.
The book follows the Israeli-Palestinian peace process starting with Carter's 1977-1980 presidency and the peace accord he negotiated between Israel and Egypt. It doles out blame to Israel, the Palestinians, the United States and others, but it is most critical of Israeli policy.
The 14 members of the 200-member board said the book "portrays the conflict between Israel and her neighbors as a purely one-sided affair with Israel holding all the responsibility for resolving the conflict."
Steve Berman, an Atlanta real estate developer among those who resigned, said members were concerned by the book's "one-sided approach" and then "watched with great dismay" as Carter defended it in comments to the press, especially as he implied that Americans might be afraid to discuss the conflict in fear of a powerful Jewish lobby.
Berman said the religious affiliation of the resigning members, which include some prominent Jewish leaders in the Atlanta area, did not influence their decision.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said in a statement Thursday that "President Carter has only himself to blame" over the resignations because the book was "blatantly one-sided and unbecoming of a former President."
Also Thursday, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which represents nearly 2,000 Reform rabbis, said it would cancel its visit to the Carter Center in protest over the book when the group holds its convention in Atlanta in March. |
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