Carter Receives Gandhi Global Nonviolence Award

“Knowledge is to know a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is to know not to put it in a fruit salad,” said Myron Augsburger while opening the Mahatma Gandhi Global Nonviolence Award Ceremony where former president Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn were each presented with the award, as well as honorary doctorates of humanities.

The Carters were given these honors at a program in James Madison University’s Convocation Hall on the twenty first of September. In addition to remarks by Jimmy Carter, the ceremony included performances by the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir and Samia Mahbub Ahmad, who performed Indian classical music.

This is the second award given by the Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence, which is located at James Madison University. The Gandhi Center is an institution that “seeks to advance the understanding of, appreciation for and practice of nonviolence.” The Gandhi Center gives awards to those who have widespread recognition for espousing humanitarian causes and for backing their words with concrete actions.

Rosalynn Carter was recognized for work involving the mentally ill, including her involvement in Project Interconnections, which provides housing for mentally ill adults. Jimmy Carter was acknowledged primarily for his work with the Carter Center, which he founded. Through the Carter Center he has worked at election monitoring, conflict mediation, public health awareness, and other humanitarian issues around the world. Carter is also a member of The Elders, a group of leaders dedicated to helping to provide guidance on major issues facing the world.

The focus of the evening was the speech given by Mr. Carter entitled “The Path to Peace in the Middle East.” Though he started out lightly (“I am never going to run for office again so I can say pretty much anything I want…”), he quickly moved on to more serious issues. Carter empathized with the fear of Israel, but said both sides were implicated by their actions.

Jimmy Carter spent significant time on the condition of the Palestinians, calling Gaza “a ghetto” due to the Israeli blockade of imports. He also traced the cause of Palestinian violence to the actions of the minority of Israelis responsible for the settlements, which are in Palestinian territory as defined by the Oslo accords and placed on the best land.

He criticized the walled highways which connect the settlements and which the Palestinians cannot cross over. Referring specifically to the security fence that Israel constructed he said: “The wall has harmed Israel’s reputation for peace and justice…makes peace impossible.”

Carter also discussed he believes is needed to achieve a peaceful existence for Israel-Palestine. He adamantly believes that “Israeli withdrawal [from the occupied territories] will greatly reduce threats to them.” Furthermore, while he did state that both sides of the conflict had responsibilities to uphold, he focused primarily on Israel, calling them to withdraw military forces and extend equal rights to Palestinians.

Also discussed were choices were available geopolitically for the reason, namely one or two nations “Between the Jordan river and Mediterranean sea.” The two state solution is the option selected by the international community and all previous negotiations, but Carter also pointed out that a single state could function, though if the Arabs were given equal rights, they would out number the Jewish people and could therefore remove the Jewish state of Israel.

Carter concluded by acknowledging that while the steps for peace are apparent, they are difficult to put into practice. However, he left the audience with a proclamation of hope: “Peace is possible in the holy land!”