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Carter, Palestine andApartheid

- B. K. RanaEmail: rana1616@yahoo.com

Today, January 23, 2007, President Jimmy Carter is on avisit to Brandeis University in Waltham, a suburban campusin Boston. He is scheduled to discuss his recentlypublished controversial book: Palestine: Peace NotApartheid. The book has drawn criticisms from differentpeopels including a Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitzalso.

Earlier, President Carter was invited to debate the bookwith the professor. But the President turned down theinvitation which sparked an outcry from some students andfaculty. They urged President Carter should be invited tocampus without conditions. The Brandeis was founded by theAmerican Jewish community. About half of whose students areJewish origins. Carter is the first former president tovisit Brandeis since Harry Truman delivered theuniversity's sixth commencement address in 1957, campusofficials said1.

Somehow or the other, the university could convincePresident Carter to speak on the book saying that therewill be no prior conditions. President Carter is set tospeak to a closed session of the university faculty thisevening. Obviously, no public would have any access tolisten to his lecture. Hopefully, his lecture will beavailable in print media tomorrow morning ! I will readmost of the materials on his lecture.

Prior to the program, President Carter was here in HarvardCooperative Society - in short Harvard Coop- to sign thebook. I had bought one sometime ago and already had acursory look onto it. The book, by the 39th President of

United States of America, appeared to me a bit differentthan his other books including The New York Timesbestsellers Our Endangered Values.

1The Boston Globe: Carter agrees to speak at Brandeis,

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/11/carter_agrees_to_speak_at_brandeis/

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I stood in line, waited my turn to pass through thesecurity checks in the first floor. Actually, it was notany tight security. There were a number of desciplinedbuyers in line up the stairs to the second floor and thirdfloor also. Of course, there were some polite securitypersonnel in civil dress watching or directing everyone in

the line. Some police were also seen standing or walkingpast us the enthustic book-buyers or Jimmy Carter fans.

In the meantime, from my shoulder behind sounded amasculine voice saying that he was born in Lebanon, grew-up in Palestine and living currently in USA. He wastalking to one of his acquaitances behind. Understandably,he was a pro-Palestine fellow. I didnt think it would beof any use to turn around to see him and say Hi, I am fromNepal or the conflict ravaged Himalayan country of Nepalas yours in the middle-east. An avarage Nepalese likemyself may not have any particular concern either overLebanon, Palestine or Isreal, however, Nepal does send

Shanti Senasor troops for peace in Lebanon at the callof United Nations.

I think Nepal began sending such Shanti Senas after [orlater] the signing of Camp David Accords2 on September 17,1978 by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli PrimeMinister Menachem Begin. To successfully finalize these twoaccords, they had twelve days of secret negotiations atCamp David - a presidential retreat outside the White Housein Maryland.

The two agreements were signed at the White House, and werewitnessed by President Carter. Sadat seemed to be willingto call the accords the Carter Accords. Later Sadat wasassissanated on October 6, 1981 apparently for signing theaccords. Carter termed Sadat as one of the bold andcourageous leraders he had ever met.

I was a student when Carter had been able to persuade Sadatand Begin to sign the accords. A ever smiling face Mr.Carter could bring peace in between Egypt and Isreal butthe middle-east still remains burning. My country, Nepal isalso burning now. A faint hope is that peace will prevailin the land of Buddha the prince of peace.

I have great respect for President Carter as he spoke ofhuman rights for peace and justice in the world. He wasawarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 "for his decades ofuntiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international

2 The Camp David Accords: http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/campdavid/accords.phtml

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conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and topromote economic and social development.

The Carter Center is deeply concerned over Nepals socio-economic conditions and current peace processess also. In

the meantime, we can hope President Carter would also speakin support of the larger mass of drisadvantagedcommunities across South Asia including Nepal for theirbasic human rights for peace and prosperity in the region.

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