Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Sunday, March 19, 2023

Israeli consul to New York summoned to Jerusalem after comments against overhaul

By Lazar Berman 19 March 2023, 9:06 pm Edit

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Israeli Consul General to New York Asaf Zamir speaks at a New York City event with the Jewish Federations of North America on September 27, 2021. (Shahar Azran)

Israeli Consul General to New York Asaf Zamir speaks at a New York City event with the Jewish Federations of North America on September 27, 2021. (Shahar Azran)

Israel’s Consul General in New York, Asaf Zamir, has been summoned to Jerusalem to clarify comments he made last week expressing his displeasure at the proposed judicial overhaul in Israel, a senior Foreign Ministry official tells The Times of Israel.

“I am deeply concerned about the direction the country is going in right now,” Zamir said at a fundraising dinner in front of hundreds of attendees. “If you want to have a national home, and you want to be everyone’s home, you really must be democratic,” he concluded to applause, in remarks first reported by the Hebrew-language Walla! News site.

Zamir was appointed to the position by current opposition leader and political ally Yair Lapid.