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WASHINGTON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday minimized his hard-right government’s judicial reform package in interviews with US media, calling it a “minor correction” while dismissing international and domestic criticism.
“It’s described as the end of Israeli democracy — I think that’s silly and when the dust settles, everybody will see it,” Netanyahu told ABC.
He described the changes, which shift some power from the Middle Eastern country’s judicial system to its elected officials, as an effort to “bring the pendulum to the middle.”
“We have to correct it, and that’s what we just did. It’s a minor correction,” he said, repeating the sentiments in a separate interview on CNN.
On Monday, Netanyahu and his coalition allies pushed through a bill in parliament which opponents say opens the way to more authoritarian government by limiting the “reasonableness” clause used by the Supreme Court to overturn government decisions which the judges deem unconstitutional.
Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in nearly daily protests against the reforms, which have also garnered sharp international pushback, including from US President Joe Biden.
Netanyahu reiterated Thursday that Biden “in the last conversation we had invited me to the White House in the fall — I think it’s in September.”
However, Biden’s office on Thursday again declined to specify whether the two leaders’ meeting would happen at the White House or elsewhere, with spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre saying “they both agreed to meet in the US later this year.”