Controversial Israeli politician running for Consul General in New York

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided in March to dismiss Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, it was met with strong protests inside and outside the country.

Israel’s Consul General in New York, Assaf Zamir, then chose to resign in protest and said he was “deeply concerned about the direction Israel is going”.

And now Netanyahu has nominated a new politician for the post: Mai Golan. But the announcement that the Golan will assume the important international diplomatic role was met with mixed reactions, according to reports Watchman.

May Golan is a controversial figure in the country. Among other things, she called herself “the mother of a politically incorrect person” and said she was “proud to be a racist,” which among other things Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in.

“Golan’s candidacy is outrageous because she is a racist and divisive figure, which is the exact opposite of what Israel needs in such an important post,” a number of former ambassadors have reportedly said of the decision, according to The Guardian and Haaretz.

Rick Jacobs, president of the Federation for Reform Judaism, also criticized the appointment.

“We need a thoughtful, diplomatic, morally credible new Consul General in New York. Mae Golan is not one of those things. Her brand of Zionism is antithetical to what most of us in society are. She would hurt rather than help the cause of Israel,” he wrote in a blog post. Twitter.

This is the Golan Heights

May Golan is a member of the ruling Likud party, where the country’s prime minister is Benjamin Netanyahu, the party’s leader.

Golan is a right-wing politician and supporter of a group of extremist politicians who supported a controversial bill that would have meant Israeli courts have less power in the country.

She received a lot of attention in connection with her racist attacks against African refugees in the country, whom she described as “Muslim infiltrators, criminals and rapists”.

– If I am a racist because I want to defend my country and because I want to protect my basic rights and security, then I am a proud racist, she said at a political meeting in 2013, when she was a member of the far-right Jewish Power party, The Guardian reports.

Golan said she felt good about the nomination and said that if elected to the position, she would like to work with the leaders of all the different Jewish organizations “as part of the effort to strengthen the greater partnership between Israel and the American Jewish communities”.

So protests broke out in Israel

During the month of March, large protests erupted in Israel over a controversial bill that the prime minister wanted to pass.

The controversial bill meant, among other things, that parliament would be able to review rulings by the Supreme Court and that politicians would have more influence over the appointment of judges to the same court.

It also legally protects Netanyahu during the trial in which he is accused of corruption.

After Netanyahu chose to dismiss the country’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, because of his support for the demonstrators, the protests grew and thousands of demonstrators took to the streets.

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