In op-ed, Jimmy Carter says the U.S. must recognize Palestine

Anwar Sadat, Jimmy Carter, and Menachem Begin at Camp David in September 1978.
(Image credit: Karl Schumacher/AFP/Getty Images)

Former President Jimmy Carter is urging the Obama administration to grant American diplomatic recognition to the state of Palestine before the president's term is over in January.

In an op-ed for The New York Times, Carter writes that Palestine, which already has diplomatic recognition from 137 countries, needs to achieve full United Nations membership. In 2009, Obama reaffirmed elements of the 1978 Camp David agreement, signed by Israel's Menachem Begin and Egypt's Anwar Sadat, which called for the "withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied" during the 1967 war. Obama called for a total freeze on settlements illegally constructed by Israel on Palestinian territory, and in 2011 said the borders of Israel and Palestine "should be based on the 1967 lines."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.