Image Credit: Mahmud Hams / AFP via Getty Images

Atlanta, January 1 (RHC)-- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at 100 years old, is remembered by the Palestinian people for his statements calling the Israeli state an apartheid entity.   

Many years ago, the former U.S. leader strongly criticized Israel and compared it to the racist apartheid South Africa.  He stirred controversy in 2006 with his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” in which he compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to South Africa’s former racist government.  

In an interview broadcast on Democracy Now! in 2007, Carter said: "The Palestinians can’t even ride on the same roads that the Israelis have created or built in Palestinian territory.  The Israelis never see a Palestinian, except the Israeli soldiers.  The Palestinians never see an Israeli, except at a distance, except the Israeli soldiers.  So, within Palestinian territory, they are absolutely and totally separated, much worse than they were in South Africa, by the way.  And the other thing is, the other definition of 'apartheid' is, one side dominates the other.  And the Israelis completely dominate the life of the Palestinian people.”

[ SOURCE: DEMOCRACY NOW ]