|
Trending Topics
|
"Israel Will Stay a Vibrant Democracy," Says Israel's UK Ambassador
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Daniel Ben-David - Israel's Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely called for calm ahead of Saturday's "Saving Israeli Democracy" protest outside the London embassy. Hotovely told the JC that the proposed judicial reforms are "not about changing the nature of Israel's democracy" and that those who were concerned about the future of the country needn't be. "Democracy is something so basic to our Jewish identity. I don't believe you can be Jewish without being democratic....We will never give up our democratic identity." These reforms "are not about changing the nature of Israel's democracy. Israel is a vibrant democracy, and it will stay like this forever, because we love well-intentioned fighting and debating too much. I do believe, speaking on behalf of the people who are happy with the reforms, they felt the balance part of checks and balances was unbalanced for many years." "Israel's Supreme Court was for years defending minorities, defending human rights, and creating precedents for helping to advance human rights. We are so proud of our Supreme Court, but we need to understand that in a way this is not the only branch of our democracy. We need to balance between peoples' rights to have laws that wouldn't be overruled time after time."