Israel’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that Shas chairman Aryeh Deri cannot legally serve as a minister in Israel’s government, a ruling that may lead to a major coalition crisis.
Ten judges voted to disqualify Deri, with only one judge, Yosef Elron, voting in favor of Deri being allowed to serve as minister.
The ruling is in response to petitions against Deri’s appointment to ministerial positions in the new government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu due to his conviction for tax offenses last year. Deri, who is serving as the Interior and Health Ministers, said on Monday that he won’t resign even if the court disqualifies him.
The ruling is a threat to the new government as Welfare Minister Yaakov Margi (Shas) told Reshet Bet earlier on Wednesday that the Shas party will not support the government if Netanyahu dismisses Deri from his positions as a result of a Supreme Court ruling.
According to a Yisrael Hayom report on Wednesday morning, Netanyahu is not prepared to defy a Supreme Court ruling and will dismiss Deri from his positions but at the same time would use the move to garner support for his government’s plans for judicial reforms.
Following the ruling, the Shas party issued a statement: “The Supreme Court, which claims to take care of minorities, today threw away the voices and votes of 400,000 voters of the Shas movement, which represents the underprivileged in Israel, who went to the polls just two months ago.
“Shas voters went to the polls knowing everything about Shas chairman, Minister Aryeh Deri. The 400,000 voters, 11 seats, knew about Deri’s plea bargain and voted for Shas led by Aryeh Deri.
“Today the court actually ruled that the elections are meaningless. The court’s decision is political and tainted by extreme improbability.
“The scandalous disqualification of the Shas chairman from a ministerial position is not only a personal offense to Deri, but a severe and stinging offense to all Shas voters and supporters. Wide sections of Israeli society today feel excluded by the court.
“The entire Shas movement is shocked by the arbitrary and unprecedented decision of the Supreme Court, contrary to law and justice, and sees it as a serious violation of the right to choose and be elected, which is the lifeblood of democracy.
“Shas is studying the ruling and will decide its next steps in accordance with the guidance of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
25 Responses
So are they saying that the best the Sephardeshe tzibur can offer is a twice convicted felon? Perhaps they deserve what they get.
The supreme court is just going to issue another ruling that it would be “Unreasonable in the Extreme” for Shas to leave the coalition.
1. Netanyahu can bribe Shas with additional patronage and “goodies”.
2. They can amend the law used as the basis for blocking Deri, or by statute grant him a pardon.
3. Changing the judiciary law won’t help all that much unless they change the statute in question. The problem is the anti-democratic statute allowing politically motivated convictions to be used to “cancel” politically incorrect politicians. Ending the judicial monopoly of upper class, secular/socialist Ashkenazim won’t solve the problem.
WOKE UP!
My suggestion for Shas is to continue with the coalition regardless and dismantle the Supreme Court, as the process has already begun. Does Shas not realize that the impetus for the Supreme Court throwing in the wrench at Deri is likely because they are running scared?
What a chillul Hashem to show the whole world that a frum convicted Jew
is unashamedly climbing on a pedestal
Shame on you shame on Bibi who is ruining his life’s work by appointing this convicted person as minister
akuperma
Although a few judges based their concurrence on Deri’s agreement, most of the judges relied on the “Unreasonable In the Extreme” case law. There was no statute involved.
For goodness’ sake, make his wife (or whoever) minister and let him be the deputy minister who’s really calling the shots, until they’ve worked out how to circumvent the supreme court; they’ve done stuff like this before.
He can still actively continue although not as a minister. They’ll apply Norwegian law and he’ll continue on as minister without portfolio as did Litzman. They’ll do what they have to with the anti normalcy court. Deri is not going anywhere.
When will Israelis wake up (together with the Jews in America who support her) and admit that the political system in Israel is rotten to the core?? In a normal country a person convicted TWICE for corruption would not have the chutzpah to serve as a Minister in a government.
Non-Jewish laws and courts and so-called convictions have no meaning or relevancy to observant Jews, who only look at the Torah, Beis Din and Halacha to determine right from wrong. Deri was never convicted or even tried for anything under Torah Law in a Beis Din.
@UJM
Dina de malchusa Dina
Or are you going to say that this is not a state
One can’t have their cake and eat it
Choose
So corrupt. So throw it all away so that one criminal gets to keep his power? Shas should just replace him and call it a day.
Akuperma, they ALREADY amended the law used as the basis for blocking Deri. The court said they can’t do that. A statutory pardon would obviously suffer the same fate; the court’s already said so.
This is an outrage and cannot be allowed to stand. If it does, there’s no more point in having elections, and it will be time for an armed uprising. Once the ballot box is gone, only the bullet box remains. These judges need to be thrown not just out of office but in a prison cell, or strung up from lampposts by their heels.
GHD, it makes no difference whether they could find someone better to represent them. Of course they could. But they don’t want to. And neither you nor I nor the court has any right to interfere with their choice. There is no statute giving the court such authority; the statute they relied on was AMENDED precisely to allow him to take the office the Knesset majority wanted him to have. The court simply grabbed the authority out of thin air. That can’t be allowed to happen.
As part of his plea bargain Deri said he will be stepping aside from politics. The no-jail plea deal was offered to him because of this representation. Whether he committed any crimes or not is irrelevant – he either voided the plea deal or needs to be held to it. And quite frankly, Shas is bigger than any one man. I am sure the Shas supporters will always thank him for his work and, in their eyes, Deri will always be someone special, but it is time to move on.
Loshenhora,
Joseph faithfully defends every “frum” crook, molester and murderer by lecturing us that we can’t believe any news stories about these wrongfully accused tzadikim. He’s president of the Lev Tahor fan club and is notorious for his diatribes on behalf of Walder.
“Gadolhadorah”:
Rasha (but we knew that)!
Do you know what actually happened there, or are you just going with the media’s stories?
Even if he did violate Zionist finance “laws”, that doesn’t disqualify him in any way from performing his duties.
As well, in our Torah, in which you obviously don’t believe, there are concepts of teshuva and viHeishiv es haGezeilah… and more.
Loshenhora:
The Zionist “State” is not an actual State (but rather a thug-ocracy) and, therefore dina diMalchusa dina does not apply to the Zionist “State”.
@Loshenhora
דינה דמלכותא דינה does not apply in EY, as the land belongs to all of us yidden
especially if it’s a govt ruling that goes against הלכה, we are not obliged to follow it
“Deri was never convicted or even tried for anything under Torah Law in a Beis Din”
And that means ZERO….you can play your word games until Moishiach comes but for the foreseeable future, EY will still be governed by secular laws and secular courts (even if they are gutted by Bibi).
Besalel, he agreed to resign from the Knesset. That is all. He never said he wouldn’t run in the next election; on the contrary, he was very open that he would. If the judge jumped to that conclusion, that’s not his problem.
Assuming it’s not a Halachik state
It’s still a chillul Hashem
When millions of goyim round the world see him on TV with a capul on
labelled as a criminal Orthodox Jew
Appointed as a Minister it incites antisemitism
Also it’s amazing how derogatory some comments are about Israel
We all benefit from it
If it’s like pork to some of us then don’t go near or use any of its infrastructure
You would not smell pork and say ahhh geshmak
Charedi Jewdism has lost its way !
@Loshenhora: Without getting dragged into the usual EY and Isr hock, I’ll just discuss your stupidity. If someone builds you a gorgeous kitchen in your house and then says you need to listen to his rules, do you only have the two choices of listening to him or abandoning your home? No, darling. He can’t force you to follow his rules just because he forced you to benefit from something he did. You kick him out, take back your house, and zehu. And there wouldn’t be a need to spitefully smash down the renovated kitchen either, why would you?
Milhouse, without seeing the actual submissions or watching the sentencing hearing, I cannot say whether or not you are correct but the impression i had from israeli media (which we can agree is not always accurate) both at the time and now is that at the hearing for sentencing he declared an intention to drop out of public service.
Xuse my stupidity I thought this was a frum forum
Besalel consider yourself amongst the lost
Suppose there is a massive difference between black hats and charadim
Of which I am neither