Israel Weekly News Roundup June 16 2023
5 Things you need to know
A Political Crisis Over the Committee to Nominate Justices, Ended in Favor of the Opposition: Members of Knesset were supposed to elect two members to the committee to nominate justices. This committee is at the center of the conflict between the coalition led by PM Netanyahu and the opposition, known as the judicial overhaul. The tension increased in the last few days. The opposition presented a candidate and declared that if she is not elected, they will terminate the negotiations at the President’s house. These are the talks to try and reach a compromise to solve the conflict. The coalition wanted to have control of the nominations committee and wanted to nominate two members from the coalition. But eventually the Knesset elected only one member from the opposition.
The candidate from the opposition got 58 votes (out of 120 Knesset Members) and only 56 against. That means that at least four members from the coalition voted for the opposition candidate, and violated the decision made by PM Netanyahu. The vote was a secret ballot and not open, which enabled some to vote for the opposition. The result is embarrassing for Netanyahu, showing his lack of control over all members of the coalition.
As only one member was elected, the Knesset will have to elect one more member within 30 days. Meanwhile the opposition declared that their representatives will terminate their participation in the judicial overhaul compromise talks to try and reach a compromise. This crisis is developing.
A Lesbian Druze Was Murdered In A Hate Crime: A horrible murder of a young woman from the Druz community was probably committed by a family member because she came out as a lesbian. The young woman was threatened before and had to flee to a crisis center to get protection. Then she tried to go back to her life but she was threatened again by her brother and offered a spot at a shelter for women at risk. But, she decided to stay at her sister’s where she was found and killed. A spontaneous demonstration near the Druze village in the Galilee was met with violent protest against the demonstrators. The Druze community is considered to be an extremely conservative, closed community.
This murder shocked the entire liberal community in Israel, especially the LGBTQ community which is currently celebrating Pride Month.
Head of Opposition and Former PM, Yair Lapid, Gave Testimony at PM Netanyahu’s Trial: Lapid is one of the witnesses against Netanyahu at his trial for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. The trial takes place three times a week at the district court in Jerusalem, and has already provided many headlines. Lapid confirmed that Netanyahu wanted to advance legislation that would help a friend of his, Hollywood producer, Arnon Milchan (who produced the well known movie Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts), in exchange for benefits from the Hollywood mogul.
Israel’s Hebrew Book Week Opened Wednesday Night and Will last 10 Days: The annual event is a celebration of books and reading. During this week there are book fairs at multiple locations all over the country, with local writers and authors signing their books and meeting with readers and fans. According to the publisher’s association, a record number of books were published last year, 6,971, as well as more than 1,000 digital books, sixty percent of them were written by women. The majority of the books are in Hebrew.
Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli Publicly Blasts J Street: in an interview to the Kan Israel public media channel, Chikli said that J Street, a pro-Israel, pro-peace American Jewish advocacy group, is “a hostile organization that harms the interests of the State of Israel”. Minister Chikli further blasted the organization for receiving funding from billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, who for several years has been the target of right-wing attacks. Chikli sided with Twitter owner, billionaire Elon Musk, who recently tweeted against Soros, causing a surge in antisemitic comments in his own Twitter social media network.
The attack on J Steet came after the group retweeted an image of Minister Chikli making what appeared to be an obscene gesture at anti judicial overhaul protestors during the annual Israel march in NYC. In the face of public criticism, Chikli claimed that the image was photoshopped.
J Street spokesman Logan Bayroff told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “comments like this show how deeply contemptuous this Israeli government is of the vast majority of American Jews, who reject their far-right, anti-democratic agenda,”.
In a public appearance at the American Jewish Committee (AJC) Global Forum in Tel Aviv, Minister Chikli once again vilified anti judicial reform protestors as “even worse than those BDS activists”. A group of protestors stood outside the global forum venue, carrying signs and chanting anti overhaul sloagans.
A US senior official said that Chikli’s statements have consequences, and criticized the negative nature of the minister’s communications with the American Jewish community. Israeli and American Jewish analysts continue to warn of the negative impact that the actions and statements of Israeli government officials have on the relationships between Israel and the American Jewish community.
For Further Reading:
Committee to nominate justices: Here, here, here