Israel's High Court of Justice has issued a bombshell decision today, ruling that Shas party leader Aryeh Deri cannot serve as deputy prime minister in the new Netanyahu government due to a previous criminal conviction.
In a 10-1 ruling, the court said that Deri's appointment to the roles of deputy prime minister, interior minister and health minister in the new government is "unreasonable in the extreme" after he pled guilty a year ago to charges of tax fraud, which was committed while he was a government minister.
The court also cited “the position Deri presented to the Magistrate’s Court that convicted him of these charges, in which he said he was quitting politics and his conduct thereafter.”
Opposition parties have urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the ruling and fire Deri as a minister, and a petitioner in the case said that the government “is not a rehabilitation facility for criminals."
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said: "If Aryeh Deri is not fired, the Israeli government is breaking the law. A government that does not obey the law is an illegal government. It can no longer demand that citizens obey the law.
"If Aryeh Deri is not fired, Israel will fall into an unprecedented constitutional crisis and will no longer be a democracy and will not be a state of law."
Labor leader Merav Michaeli added: “Certainly the court’s decision is difficult for many citizens. But in a democracy, a court’s ruling is respected by the right and the left.
“Netanyahu and Deri must show responsibility and respect the ruling.”
In January 2022, Deri accepted a plea bargain and pled guilty to charges of tax fraud and was given a 12-month suspended prison sentence, a fine of NIS 180,000 (around £43,049), and committed to withdrawing from public life, resigning from the Knesset.
However, he stood for election in November and was re-elected to the Knesset. He was then appointed by Benjamin Netanyahu to serve as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior, and Minister of Health under the terms of the new far-right-wing coalition deal.
Earlier this month, he served briefly as acting prime minister while Netanyahu underwent a medical procedure and was incapacitated.
Moments after the court's ruling, the Shas party released a statement accusing the court of making a "political" judgment that undermined the votes of those who elected Deri: "Today, the court effectively ruled that elections are meaningless. The court’s decision is political and tainted with extreme unreasonableness.
“The entire Shas movement is appalled by the arbitrary and unprecedented decision of the High Court of Justice, in contravention of law and justice, and sees it as a serious violation of the right to vote and to be elected, which is the lifeblood of democracy."
Earlier this month, the government proposed legislation that would cancel the reasonableness test that the court used in the ruling, and this is likely to increase pressure on the coalition to accelerate its passage.
The government is also facing huge protests against plans to drastically change the role of the Supreme Court in the Israeli political system. Under the proposed changes, the court would be unable to strike down legislation passed in the Knesset, which critics say would be an unprecedented alteration to the balance of power in Israel.
