Jimmy Carter Sued For Consumer Fraud

Jimmy Carter is being sued for consumer fraud as part of a class-action lawsuit, based on his book “Palestine: Peace or Apartheid.

According to Israeli activist attorney Nitzana Darshan-Leitner, the issue of course goes beyond simple consumer fraud:

During the trial, we will of course have to examine the facts in question, and we will of course unveil the falsity of much of what he writes. Carter makes numerous claims in the book that he knows to be false, and we know that he knows them to be false.

The complaint, filed in a New York court, reads in part that Carter:as a former American president and self-proclaimed Middle East expert ... knew that substantial and material portions of the book were untrue, and has failed to advise the public,” [putting him in violation of New York State's Consumer Protection Laws] “specifically New York General Business Law section 349, which makes it unlawful to engage in deceptive acts in the course of conducting business.”

Over 50 facts are cited that Carter got wrong:

Among the errors in the book, says Darshan-Leitner, is Carter's misrepresentation of UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 336, which he cites as proof that Israel must withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines. “Even a child reading the documents will note that the resolutions say 'withdraw from land,' not 'all the land' captured in 1967,” Darshan-Leitner says.

Carter wrote this despite the fact that Lord Caradon (British diplomat Hugh M. Foot), who authored the resolution, specifically stated that this was not the intent of the resolution. In a discussion in the House of Commons in 1969, Caradon said that “it would have been wrong to demand that Israel return to its positions of June 4, 1967, because those positions were undesirable and artificial.” The suit cites this and numerous other quotes by Caradon and others affirming this fact.

In addition, the suit says, Carter falsely depicted the 1949 armistice lines as an international border (they have never been recognized as such), that Israel has never “granted appreciable autonomy to the Palestinians” (thus ignoring the establishment and continued existence of the Palestinian Authority), and that Syria was prepared to accept a demilitarized Golan Heights (Syrian diplomats specifically denied that).

Darshan-Leitner makes clear that this is not an issue of free speech: “He is entitled to his opinions, but deceptions and lies have no place in works of history.”

Based on an average of $27 people paid for Carter's book Darshan-Leitner is seeking about $5 million in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages and court costs.

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