Carter sued over 'Palestine' book

NEW YORK, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was named in a $5 million class-action lawsuit alleging his book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid," was deceptive.

The suit accused Carter and publisher Simon & Schuster of violating New York consumer protection laws because they engaged in "deceptive acts in the course of conducting business" and profited by promoting the book as a "work of non-fiction," The Washington Post reported.

In their lawsuit, the five readers said the book had "numerous false and knowingly misleading statements intended to promote the author's agenda of anti-Israel propaganda and to deceive the reading public instead of presenting accurate information as advertised," the Post reported Wednesday.

Simon & Schuster spokesman Adam Rothberg said in a statement the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in New York, was frivolous and without merit.

The suit is "a transparent attempt by the plaintiffs, despite their contentions, to punish the author, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and world-renowned statesmen, and his publisher, for writing and publishing a book with which the plaintiffs simply disagree," Rothberg said in the statement sent to the Post. "It is a chilling attack on free speech that we intend to defend vigorously."