(Morrisville) Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the Israeli government, faced with a vast protest movement against its justice reform project, since put on “pause”, could not “continue on this path”.
“They cannot continue on this path and I think I have made myself understood,” said the American president on the sidelines of a visit to North Carolina.
“I hope they will give it up,” he said later about the text of the law, once back in Washington.
Asked if Israeli democracy was at a turning point, Joe Biden assured: “It is a difficult situation and they must find a solution. »
Mr. Biden also clarified that he had no plans to invite “in the short term” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.
The American executive had “welcomed” on Monday the announcement, after three months of demonstrations, of a “pause” of this disputed justice reform in Israel, while continuing to call on the political leaders of the Jewish state to find a compromise as soon as possible.
Led by one of the most right-wing governments in Israel, the reform project gave birth to one of the largest popular mobilization movements in the country.
A first meeting between majority and opposition parties on this subject ended Tuesday evening in “a positive spirit”, according to the office of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
For the government, the reform aims to rebalance powers by reducing the prerogatives of the Supreme Court, which the executive considers politicized, in favor of Parliament.
Its detractors believe, on the contrary, that the reform risks leading to an illiberal or authoritarian drift.