Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to drastically reduce the power of Israel’s Supreme Court, made possible by support from the far-right Likud and Otzma Yehudit parties, has ignited one of the largest protests in the country’s history. Several hundred thousand Israelis continue to rally against this proposed legislation, which would allow the Knesset to overturn Supreme Court decisions with a majority vote and undermine the country’s independent judiciary.

In the United States, this attempt to weaken the court has been met with sharp criticism by both critics and supporters of Israel. Over ninety House Democrats stated that they were “profoundly concerned” over Netanyahu’s attempted judicial overhaul in a letter to President Biden, and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman declared that “Netanyahu is shattering Israeli society.” Criticism of Israel is nothing new among the American left, which has long considered Netanyahu a pariah.

Obscured behind fears of the end of liberal Israel is the general agreement, across what is comically called the Middle East’s most successful democracy, on the necessity of systematically violating the human rights of Palestinians. Israel’s violations of international law — including the American-supported and subsidized occupation of the West Bank, Golan Heights, and Gaza Strip, and the regular attacks on neighboring nations — are points on which parties across the political spectrum agree.