Former United States President Jimmy Carter has turned 100, and praise is pouring in for the peanut farmer whose post-presidential career resonated far beyond his short time in office.

Carter celebrated his birthday Tuesday from his hometown of Plains, Georgia, where he entered hospice care in his modest home last year.

He is both the oldest living president and the longest-lived president in American history, with an outsized legacy defined by his human rights and humanitarian work after a presidency in which he was heavily criticized.

“I think he has a complicated legacy, but the bottom line for me and I think for him is that he lived out his faith and the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself in a way that allowed him to respected,” says Carter’s grandson. Jason Carter told local news station 11Alive ahead of the ex-president’s birthday.

“And he used that respect to tell the truth. He used that respect to promote human rights,” he said. “He used that respect to work with the least of these, around the world, in a way that gave him partners in the world’s poorest places to do remarkable things.”

Although Carter did not attend any events for his birthday, it was marked by a concert in Atlanta, Georgia, in September, where several former U.S. presidents sent video messages praising Carter’s life’s work. A recording of the concert will be broadcast in the US on Tuesday evening.

A year after leaving office, Carter founded the Carter Center charity, which has led a range of global programs. This includes monitoring election integrity around the world, promoting human rights and strengthening public health.

The charity’s efforts have contributed to the near-total eradication of the Guinea worm from around the world. Carter also remained active with Habitat for Humanity, a global housing organization, well into his 90s.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for ‘undertaking peace negotiations, campaigning for human rights and working for social welfare’.

‘Universal silence’ on Israel

Carter’s post-presidential legacy was notable for his willingness to break with the norms of the US political establishment.

In 2006, he became the rare political figure – let alone a former president – ​​to question Israeli policies in occupied Palestinian territory.

He condemned “an almost universal silence on anything that could be critical of the current policies of the Israeli government.”

He also described the surveillance system in the occupied territory as “apartheid”, a position that has since been adopted by some human rights organizations.

In 2009, he said that Palestinians in Gaza were being “treated more like animals than people.”

His stance helped pave the way for criticism of Israeli policies within mainstream American politics, despite deep-seated support for Washington’s “iron ally” among the American political class.

His words also helped lay the groundwork for the growing number of US lawmakers calling on President Joe Biden’s administration to halt arms transfers to Israel amid the war in Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians since October . 7, 2023.

Biden was among those who praised Carter in the days before his historic birthday.

In a video address broadcast on the CBS broadcaster’s Sunday morning program, Biden praised the “moral clarity you have demonstrated throughout your career.”

“You are a voice of courage, conviction, compassion and, above all, a beloved friend to (First Lady) Jill and me and our family,” Biden said.

He added that this was the first anniversary since Carter’s 77-year-old wife, Rosalynn Carter, died in November 2023.

Peanut farmer will surprise president

Born in 1924, Carter grew up supporting his father’s peanut farming business, which he took over after serving in the U.S. Navy. He became a Democratic activist amid the civil rights movement before becoming a senator and eventually governor of Georgia.

Virtually unknown on the national stage, he saw a surprising surge in the Democratic presidential primaries ahead of the 1976 election and went on to defeat Republican President Gerald Ford.

However, his sole term in office was marked by a stagnant economy, plagued by high inflation and unemployment. His attempt to shift American energy consumption toward renewable sources failed to gain traction in the U.S. Congress.

Foreign policy was more of a mixed bag. Carter helped establish diplomatic relations with China, brokered a limit on nuclear weapons with then-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and brokered a treaty that brought the Panama Canal under local control.

He also oversaw talks between then-Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, during which the two countries established full diplomatic and economic ties – in exchange for Israel returning part of the Sinai Peninsula – as part of the Camp David Accords.

But the 1979 storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, which took 52 American citizens hostage, was a major blow to Carter’s already tepid approval ratings. They were further damaged by a failed rescue attempt in 1980. Shortly afterwards, Republican candidate Ronald Reagan defeated Carter in a landslide victory.

Late in life, Carter, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, remained active in Democratic politics, rallying voters and advising candidates. His re-emergence during the 2020 presidential election season was dubbed by some as the “Jimmy Carter Renaissance.”

His family has said he has expressed hope that he will live to see the upcoming elections on November 5. He hopes to vote for Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.