section_path: Post-presidency (1981–2024)/Israel and Palestine
section_name: Israel and Palestine
paragraph_text: Israel and Palestine
  
  Carter was one of many international observers who took part in the first Palestinian general election in 1996. The Carter Center and National Democratic Institute sent an 85-person team to take part in the election observation.
  
  Carter's 2006 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, a New York Times Best Seller, generated controversy for characterizing Israel's policies in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip as amounting to apartheid. In remarks broadcast over radio, he said that Israel's policies amounted to an apartheid worse than South Africa's:
  
  When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank, and connects the 200 or so settlements with each other, with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa.
  
  Carter defended himself against accusations of antisemitism by saying "the hope is that my book will at least stimulate a debate, which has not existed in this country. There's never been any debate on this issue of any significance." He said that Israel would not have peace until it agreed to withdraw from the occupied territories, adding, "the greatest commitment in my life has been trying to bring peace to Israel."
  
  In a 2007 speech at Brandeis University, Carter apologized for wording in the book that suggested that Palestinian suicide terror attacks were justified as a political tool. "That sentence was worded in a completely improper and stupid way. I've written my publishers to change that sentence immediately in future editions of the book. I apologize to you personally and to everyone here."
  
  In his 2010 book We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land, Carter cites Israel's unwillingness to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories and settlement expansion as the primary obstacle to peace in the Middle East.
  
  Carter was one of many international observers who took part in the first Palestinian general election in 1996. The Carter Center and National Democratic Institute sent an 85-person team to take part in the election observation.
  
  Carter's 2006 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, a New York Times Best Seller, generated controversy for characterizing Israel's policies in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip as amounting to apartheid. In remarks broadcast over radio, he said that Israel's policies amounted to an apartheid worse than South Africa's:
  
  When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank, and connects the 200 or so settlements with each other, with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa.
  
  Carter defended himself against accusations of antisemitism by saying "the hope is that my book will at least stimulate a debate, which has not existed in this country. There's never been any debate on this issue of any significance." He said that Israel would not have peace until it agreed to withdraw from the occupied territories, adding, "the greatest commitment in my life has been trying to bring peace to Israel."
  
  In a 2007 speech at Brandeis University, Carter apologized for wording in the book that suggested that Palestinian suicide terror attacks were justified as a political tool. "That sentence was worded in a completely improper and stupid way. I've written my publishers to change that sentence immediately in future editions of the book. I apologize to you personally and to everyone here."
  
  In his 2010 book We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land, Carter cites Israel's unwillingness to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories and settlement expansion as the primary obstacle to peace in the Middle East.