ISRAEL Supreme Court rejects ministerial appointment of key Netanyahu ally

The judges of the Court consider that the Shas leader, Aryeh Deri, convicted of fraud and bribery, should resign from the Ministry of the Interior and Health. Most close ranks and announce battle. The party speaks of a “political ruling.” A new battlefront with the Judiciary after the presentation of the controversial justice reform.

Jerusalem () – A new front has opened up in Israel between the government and the judiciary at a time of strong tensions between institutional powers and protests in the streets around the controversial justice reform, one of the priorities of the new government. The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the appointment of Aryeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, as minister is “extremely unreasonable” given the convictions he has received, including a recent one for suspended tax fraud. According to the judges, the executive should force him to resign and appoint a replacement, a hypothesis already rejected by Deri himself and by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who considers him a key ally within the coalition.

Commenting on the situation, Justice Minister Yariv Levin speaks of an “absurd” decision. His colleagues from the Shas party describe it as a “political sentence” to weaken the Government at a time of tension between the organs of the State. The sentence, issued yesterday, was announced by the president of the Supreme Court, who ruled with an overwhelming majority of 10 votes in favor and only one against. Deri, said the magistrate, “was sentenced three times” and “violated his duty to serve him” with “loyalty” to the country and its citizens.

In her statement after the verdict, the president of the Supreme Court did not spare criticism of Netanyahu himself, who should have taken into account “the serious accumulation of crimes” that weigh on the Shas leader before assigning him key ministries such as Interior and Health. In this way, the judge concluded -quoted by Haaretz- “it damages the image and reputation of the entire judicial system of the country” and goes against “the principles of conduct inspired by ethics and legality”.

Now the ball passes to Netanyahu, who will have to accept – or not, as seems more likely – the decision of the judges, who also pointed to the pressure exerted last month in the Knesset, where the law was changed to allow the appointment. The Shas leader is a pillar of the government, which the prime minister – who is also being tried for corruption – cannot do without. In 1999 Deri was sentenced to three years for fraud and bribery, released after 22 months and returned to Parliament in 2013. In January of last year, he negotiated a one-year suspended sentence – always for corruption – and a fine of more than 50 thousand euros.

The Shas party confirmed in a statement that it has no intention of joining the government coalition if its leader is not included among the ministers. A joint statement by the majority leaders announced the battle “by all means permitted by law and without loss of time” to redress “an injustice.” Of a very different tenor is the comment of the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, who warned the government of flagrant violations of the law and the risk of “an unprecedented constitutional crisis” if Deri is not removed. “A government that does not respect the law – said the former prime minister – is a government outside the law. And the right to ask citizens to respect the law cannot be arrogated.”