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(JTA) – They’ve donated untold tens of millions to develop Israel and defend it from its detractors. Now, a gaggle of main philanthropists in North America have come collectively to warn that Israeli democracy is in jeopardy as the brand new authorities seeks to overtake the judiciary and grant itself veto energy over Supreme Courtroom rulings.
Fifteen main donors and charitable foundations, together with Birthright co-founder Charlies Bronfman, launched an open letter Sunday urging Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to rethink his authorities’s plans and enter right into a dialogue on the proposed judicial reforms as really helpful final week by the nation’s president, Isaac Herzog.
Netanyahu’s governing coalition has pushed the court docket reform laws ahead within the face of mass protests which have introduced a whole lot of hundreds of Israelis to the streets. The proposed reform has additionally drawn criticism from authorized students, public intellectuals and overseas leaders, together with President Joe Biden.
“Due to our love for Israel, we’re deeply troubled by this try to curtail the independence of the judiciary, one of many key options that makes Israel probably the most vibrant democracies on the earth,” the donors’ letter reads.
Along with Bronfman, the signatories embody Adam Bronfman, the Samuel Bronfman Basis, Lester Crown, Jeffrey Solomon, Marcia Riklis, Daniel Lubetzky, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Basis, the Leichtag Basis, Georgette Bennett, the Joyce & Irving Goldman Household Basis, the Russell Berrie Basis, the Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Household Charitable Funds, Dana Raucher, and Jeremy and Anne Pava — the founders of Micah Philanthropies. (Raucher sits on the board of 70 Faces Media, JTA’s guardian group.)
The letter argues that Israel’s political system lacks lots of the checks and balances that exist in different international locations, reminiscent of a bicameral parliament, making the Supreme Courtroom’s independence an integral part of Israeli democracy. However the letter additionally says that some reforms to the court docket are wanted.
“The one counterweight to the legislative and the chief is an unbiased judiciary, which — whereas imperfect and in want of enchancment — performs a important position in safeguarding the rights and freedoms of all Israelis and guaranteeing that the legal guidelines of the nation are utilized pretty and justly,” the letter reads.
It continues, “Whereas we admire that judicial reform was a marketing campaign concern and that many Israelis voted for the governing coalition hoping for adjustments to the nation’s judiciary, we strongly imagine that democracy calls for discourse. Swift laws with out enough dialogue can undermine the checks and balances which might be on the core of Israel’s democracy, threatening important relationships each inside Israel (amongst Jews and between Jews and Arabs) and between Israel and the Diaspora.”
When probably the most right-wing coalition in Israeli historical past got here to energy in December, many Jewish philanthropists and communal leaders expressed concern over Israel’s future privately. However as time has gone on, tensions between the Israeli authorities and Israel’s backers within the Diaspora have elevated.
A leaked coverage memo from the social gathering of a deputy minister within the Israeli authorities, for instance, portrayed many American Jewish donors to Israel civil society as a nefarious drive bent on imposing pluralistic values on Israeli college youngsters. And whereas talking at gatherings hosted by American Jewish organizations, Netanyahu and his Diaspora affairs minister, Amichai Chikli, have swatted away criticisms of the federal government’s choices.
The letter is the newest in a mounting pile of open pleas from teams who say the proposed reforms threaten Israel’s future. Additionally this weekend, new letters had been distributed by the Conservative/Masorti motion of Judaism, 200 U.S. Jewish scientists and Arab Israeli leaders.
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