255 American investors warn: Judicial overhaul will affect our Israel investments

More than 250 U.S. based investors have sent a letter to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning his government’s judicial overhaul will scare off investors. 

According to a letter, published by Channel 12, the 255 investors expressed their “deepest dismay” over the proposed changes to Israel judicial system, stressing that a “truly independent court system is essential to democracy as well as being crucial for minority and civil rights in Israel.”

The government’s plan to weaken and politicise the High Court of Justice has been met with fierce criticism by virtually all sectors of Israeli society, including high-tech, top economists, universities, legal scholars, teachers, and former IDF chiefs.

Former governors of the Bank of Israel have also issued dire warnings about the economic ramifications of the judicial reforms.

Karnit Flug and Jacob Frenkel, who both served as governors of the Bank of Israel, said in a joint op-ed in Yediot Ahronot the overhaul would “deal a severe blow to the economy and its citizens.”

The 255 investors, which include former U.S. Treasury undersecretary Jeffrey Goldstein, predicted that the judicial shake-up will cause many leaders in the business community to feel “compelled to reevaluate their reliance on Israel as a strategic destination for investment, sourcing talent, building engineering centres, and maintaining intellectual property.”

“It will also become increasingly difficult to advocate for and defend Israel internationally,” they added.

Many of the signatories have companies with offices in Israel which employ “a significant number of citizens, we invest substantially int he country and our companies are strategically reliant on Israel,” the letter continued.

The letter comes as Israel’s finance minister is on his first trip abroad to the US, where he has been met with fierce protests due to his recent remarks about the Palestinian town of Huwara, calling on it to be “wiped out.”

Smotrich gave a speech in English to 150 leaders in the Israel Bonds organisation, while several different protests took place outside the Grand Hyatt where the event was taking place.

Israeli ex-pats, American Jews and left-wing organisations were rallying outside, some demonstrating against his racist and homophobic remarks in recent years, while others protested the government’s judicial overhaul, which is receiving full backing by Smotrich and his Religious Zionism party.

Some of the biggest and most influential American Jewish organisations decided not to engage with Smotrich during his stay, including AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federations of North America, and the American Jewish Committee.

Brushing off the deep divide inside Israel, as well as the intense criticism aimed at the government among Diaspora Jews, Smotrich said: “Disagreement is not something that should scare us. On the contrary, it enriches us.”

“Judaism has always known controversies. We can even say it was built on controversies,” he added.