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Clinton's remarks on Israeli democracy spark
lawmakers' ire
Monday December 05, 2011 06:51:13 AM,
IANS
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Jerusalem: US Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton's Saturday's remarks voicing concerns
about Israel's democracy and women's rights in the country have
anguished some Jewish lawmakers who view her comments as
"exaggerated."
Speaking at the Saban Forum in Washington, Clinton said her
concerns were caused by Israel's recently passed legislation that
limits foreign funding for non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
Xinhua reported.
Clinton, who made her remarks to some Israeli officials at a
closed session of the forum, also talked about the growing
exclusion of women from the Israeli public society.
She cited the gender segregation on certain bus lines as well as
religious soldiers who refuse to attend women's performances, and
compared the phenomena to that of Iran, the Ha'aretz daily
reported.
Several Israeli ministers, however, strongly disapproved Clinton's
claims that Israel's democracy was deteriorating.
"The Israeli democracy is alive, liberal and breathing," said
Israel's Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz while calling Clinton's
comments "completely exaggerated".
Comparing Israel with the West, Steinitz said: "I don't know many
better democracies in the world," while cautioning that "it is of
course necessary to fix things sometimes".
Also, the country's Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan
suggested Clinton should pay attention to US domestic affairs,
rather than those in other countries.
Clinton's remarks, however, found support of Israeli opposition
leader Tzipi Livni, who thought the US secretary of state's
comments should "wake up all those that are still blind to the
murky cloud that is passing over Israel".
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