On Thursday, Israel’s former prime minister urged global leaders to avoid the country’s current leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, as he moves forward with a plan to reform the justice system. Netanyahu was urged to slow down by the US and Germany, two of Israel’s closest friends.
The unusual pleas for restraint and international action came as tens of thousands of Israelis protested Netanyahu’s plan in the streets once more.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told The Associated Press that world leaders should avoid meeting with Netanyahu. Olmert was in office from 2006 to 2009. He particularly addressed his appeal to Rishi Sunak, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, who will soon host Benjamin Netanyahu.
Olmert urged the leaders of the nations that were friends with Israel to forgo meetings with the Israeli premier.
As a previous Israeli prime minister, he acknowledged that his call was “quite extraordinary,” but he continued that it was necessary given the circumstances. Olmert stated, “I believe the current Israeli administration is purely anti-Israeli.
“I urge the leaders of the friendly countries to the state of Israel to refrain from meeting with the Israeli prime minister,” Olmert said.
He added that he was aware his call, as a former Israeli prime minister, “is quite extraordinary” but that the situation calls for it. “I think that the present government of Israel is simply anti-Israeli,” Olmert said.
He took aim at Netanyahu’s far-right coalition, an alliance of ultra-Orthodox and ultranationalist parties that oppose Palestinian independence and support increased settlement construction in occupied territories claimed by the Palestinians.