Israel, US tensions rise over judicial overhaul

President Joe Biden says Israel ‘cannot continue down this road’, sparking backlash.

Protesters face off with a mounted policeman in Tel Aviv. Picture: Getty Images

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul his country’s justice system has stirred tensions with the US. President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have criticised the proposal and Israeli MPs have fired back that the legislation is an internal matter.

Mr Biden told on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) that he was “very concerned” about a judicial overhaul in Israel that would grant the ruling coalition power to appoint more like-minded judges, allow the Israeli parliament to overrule the Supreme Court with a simple majority and sharply circumscribe judicial review.

Mr Netanyahu halted the legislation on Monday after strikes rocked the country and dissent over the law inside Israel’s military escalated into a crisis.

Mr Biden cautioned Israeli leaders that “they cannot continue down this road” and said Mr Netanyahu wouldn’t be invited to the White House “in the near term”.

The remarks sparked a furore in Jerusalem, where Mr Netanyahu released a statement at 1.30am local time saying Israel wouldn’t make decisions based on “pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends”.

On Wednesday, during a State Department virtual summit promoting democracy, Mr Netanyahu said the US and Israel have had “occasional differences” but called the alliance “unshakeable”.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right supporter of the judicial overhaul, said Mr Biden should respect the results of Israel’s election last November, when some of Mr Netanyahu’s allies campaigned on the judicial overhaul.

“Israel is an independent country, not another star in the American flag, ” Mr Ben-Gvir told Israel’s Army Radio on Wednesday.

Supporters of the overhaul say the plan is necessary to rein in activist left-wing judges who have seized too much power and thwart the will of elected right-wing majorities in Israel’s parliament. Critics say the proposals would effectively eliminate judicial review and deal a fatal blow to Israel’s democratic character. Mr Netanyahu is pursuing compromise legislation for passage later this year.

Mr Biden has made friendship with Israel a bedrock of his foreign policy, choosing the ally as the first stop on his Middle East trip last summer and rarely weighing in on the conflict with the Palestinians. He spoke on Tuesday about the judicial overhaul after months of Israeli protests in which demonstrators have called the effort a slide into authoritarianism.

Mr Biden discussed the issue with Mr Netanyahu in a phone call this month, emphasising that “fundamental changes should be pursued with the broadest possible base of popular support,” the White House said. Biden administration officials have publicly called for Mr Netanyahu to reach a compromise on the judicial overhaul for weeks.

“Biden is conducting a presidency he’s defined as defending democracy from its erosion,” said Dan Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Israel and fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. “And he sees what’s been proposed as a threat to Israel’s democracy, security, economy, and a strain on the US-Israel partnership.”

Senior members of Mr Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party slammed Mr Biden’s remarks. Miki Zohar, the minister of culture and sport, tweeted the president had “fallen victim to the fake news that has been spread in Israel.” He later deleted the post.

Mr Netanyahu’s son Yair — who political observers say is a major influence on his father — has accused the State Department of funding the anti-overhaul protests. The State Department dismissed the claims as “completely and demonstrably false.”

In Washington, Republican senator Ted Cruz criticised the Biden administration’s approach to the crisis in Israel. “It has been deeply disappointing to see the White House undermining the nation of Israel and in particular, undermining the democratically elected leadership of Israel in Prime Minister Netanyahu,” he said Monday.

But Democrats senator Sheldon Whitehouse said Mr Netanahu’s overhaul plans undermined a key argument American officials have used in the past to defend Israel, that being the strength of Israel’s democratic institutions. “Anything that appears to be compromising democratic values in Israel degrades that argument,” he said.

The rare public spat between the two allies led Mr Netanyahu’s political opponents to accuse him of endangering the relationship with the US, widely considered a pillar of Israeli security.

“President Biden sent an urgent wake-up call to the Israeli government tonight. Damage to our relations with the United States, our best friend and our most important ally, is a strategic disaster,” said National Unity party leader Benny Gantz.

Mr Netanyahu’s re-election last November at the helm of a coalition of ultra-Orthodox parties and hard-line nationalists raised tensions with the Biden administration and congressional Democrats. Mr Netanyahu’s government opposes ending Israeli rule in the West Bank, where millions of Palestinians live under Israeli military occupation.

Since being sworn in, Mr Netanyahu’s coalition has moved to legalise Israeli settlement outposts in the West Bank, which Washington has condemned. MPs also passed a law that enabled Israeli settlers to return to four settlements dismantled as part of a US-supported disengagement in 2005 from parts of the West Bank and Gaza.

The Wall Street Journal