‘Demonstrably false’: US pans Levin’s claim it’s cooperating with overhaul opponents

US President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday flatly denied claims by Justice Minister Yariv Levin that it has been cooperating with opposition forces in Israel to block the government’s effort to overhaul the judiciary.

“These accusations are completely and demonstrably false,” a US State Department official said in response to a query on the matter.

Levin claimed that the US government “works in cooperation with [the anti-overhaul activists] on this issue, which is evident by the things government spokespeople say there.” He made the remarks at a meal with Haredi activists on Sunday evening, footage of which was published Monday by the Walla news site.

However, he acknowledged that the US position on the overhaul was based on an honest reflection of the administration’s views and not some kind of conspiracy against the legislation.

The Biden administration has gradually intensified its engagement with Israel on the issue after first indicating that it would not get involved in the internal matter.

After seeing the extreme nature of the proposals unveiled by Levin on January 4, it began issuing statements that stressed the importance of maintaining an independent judiciary in Israel and urging that radical changes to the country’s foundational structures only be passed with broad consensus.

Feeling that Netanyahu wasn’t taking the hint, US President Joe Biden chose to weigh in personally in late March, telling reporters that Netanyahu should “walk away” from the initial overhaul legislation, that he was “very concerned” about the health of Israeli democracy and warning that Israel “cannot continue down this road.”

Netanyahu has since agreed to pause the legislative blitz to allow for talks with the opposition, though no progress toward a compromise has been reported in the months since.

The wording on the State Department’s Tuesday response was identical to the one given last month by State Department spokesman Vedant Patel in response to a claim by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair that the Biden administration was funding the demonstrations against the contentious plan to significantly weaken the judiciary.

The younger Netanyahu had pointed to State Department grants that had been allocated to the Movement for Quality Government organization, which has indeed been involved in the anti-overhaul protests.

However, that grant was awarded during the previous administration of Donald Trump and was specifically allocated for an educational program for Jerusalem schools that supplemented their civic studies curriculum. The most recent grant was also allocated two months before the election and four months before the overhaul was unveiled.