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WASHINGTON (JTA) — Talking earlier than one of many main architects of the Israeli authorities’s judicial overhaul, Vice President Kamala Harris burdened the significance of unbiased courts in a democracy.
Harris’s speech on Tuesday got here after every week by which opponents of the judicial overhaul — which might considerably weaken the Israeli Supreme Court docket — protested Israeli right-wing politicians at a sequence of occasions in New York Metropolis and elsewhere. Simcha Rothman, a far-right lawmaker who’s a number one proponent of the judicial overhaul, was in attendance when the vice chairman spoke.
The occasion the place Harris spoke was a gala celebrating Israel’s seventy fifth birthday, and was hosted by the Israeli embassy on the Nationwide Constructing Museum in Washington, D.C. In her remarks, she praised the U.S.-Israel relationship in addition to the Biden administration’s insurance policies on Israel, together with navy assist and inspiring normalization between Israel and Arab states. However as she wrapped up she alluded to the judicial overhaul, which President Joe Biden has repeatedly criticized.
“Beneath President Joe Biden and our administration, America will proceed to face for the values which were the bedrock of the U.S.-Israel relationship, which incorporates persevering with to strengthen our democracies,” she mentioned. She nodded towards the Israeli ambassador, Michael Herzog, and continued, “which, because the ambassador has mentioned, are each constructed on robust establishments, checks and balances, and — I’ll add — an unbiased judiciary.”
There have been whoops and cheers among the many 2,000 or so attendees, which included many Jewish Democrats and leaders of Jewish organizations who’ve criticized the deliberate reforms.
On Sunday, a contingent of anti-overhaul protesters got here to the Have fun Israel parade in New York Metropolis, protesting right-wing Israeli politicians who have been marching. A bunch additionally protested Israeli authorities ministers who spoke on the Jerusalem Submit convention on Monday in New York, in addition to different latest occasions the place they appeared. On Friday evening, Rothman grabbed a megaphone from a protester who was heckling him as he walked down the road, returning it quickly afterward.
The protests in the US are sometimes organized by expatriate Israelis in solidarity with the mass demonstrations opposing the overhaul in Israel. Critics of the laws view the courts as a bulwark defending susceptible populations together with Arabs, girls, LGBTQ Israelis and non-Orthodox Jews.
In her speech, Harris additionally referred to the not too long ago unveiled Biden administration technique to fight antisemitism, the product of a activity pressure led by her Jewish husband, Douglas Emhoff, who additionally attended the embassy gala.
“When Israel is singled out due to anti-Jewish hatred that’s antisemitism and that’s unacceptable,” she mentioned to applause.
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