France was the second western country to issue a warning about the dangers of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan.
https://www.jpost.com/-By TOVAH LAZAROFF
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Elysee Palace as part of the commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day, 100 years after the end of the First World War, in Paris, France, November 11, 2018.
(photo credit: PHILIPPE WOJAZER/REUTERS)
Israel risks disconnecting itself from democracy if it pursues judicial reform, French President Emmanuel Macron told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to reports in the French media sourced to Le Monde.
If the reform were adopted as it stands, France will be forced to conclude that Israel has cut itself off from the common vision both states have of what a democracy is, Macron told him when the two met at the Elysee Palace on Thursday night.
He was the second western leader to issue a warning about the dangers of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan, which critics fear could weaken Israel’s democracy so that it would be more akin to Hungary or Poland.
Blinken also touted the importance of Democracy when he visited Israel earlier this week, noting that it lay at the foundation of the relationship between both countries.
In an unusual manner, he also appeared to intervene in the domestic argument around the reform but suggested it should be a non-partisan process led by President Isaac Herzog.
The warnings by Blinken and Macron come as financial institutions and leading economists have also raised concerns that the overhaul could harm Israel financially.
Netanyahu has argued that the reforms will strengthen not weaken Israel’s democracy. He had hoped to push back at the criticism over his judicial reform by meeting with French entrepreneurs and showing that Israel remains an attractive market to global investors.
Netanyahu’s first trip to France since taking office
The weekend trip to France is his first since taking office less than two months ago.
Labor Party leader Michal Michaeli said in response that this was “the first clear warning signal from France regarding Netanyahu’s future: the coup d’état you are planning is not a ‘reform of the judicial system.’ It will take Israel out of the group of democratic states, with all the implications that carries.”
“If you still have a shred of responsibility for the country, stop the legislative blitz of the judicial system immediately,” she added.