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Jerusalem, Israel | Xinhua | Israel’s Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara has requested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire his key ally Aryeh Deri after the Supreme Court disqualified Deri from serving as a cabinet minister for his criminal conviction.
The Israeli top court ruled on Wednesday that Aryeh Deri, the influential leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, cannot serve as a minister because of his conviction in February 2022 for tax fraud.
In a letter made public on Thursday, Baharav-Miara told Netanyahu that he “must act in accordance with the ruling and remove him (Deri) from his positions in the government.”
Netanyahu must appoint someone else to lead the Health Ministry and Interior Ministry, positions currently held by Deri, Baharav-Miara said in the letter, adding Netanyahu himself cannot hold these posts because he is facing a criminal trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Netanyahu has not announced yet if he would fire Deri, a long-time ally and close associate.
Deri’s Shas became the third largest party in the parliament after winning 11 seats in parliamentary elections last November. If Netanyahu loses its support, he might lose his majority in the parliament as his far-right coalition only has 64 seats in the 120-seat parliament.
In Wednesday’s ruling, 10 of the 11-judge panel said the appointment of Deri was “extremely unreasonable,” citing mainly his recent conviction as well as a three-year prison sentence he was given in 2000 for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Shas rejected the ruling as “political” and “a witch hunt.” Justice Minister Yair Levin also denounced the ruling in a statement as “absurd.”
The legal decision deepens an already unprecedented rift between the new hard-right government and the judiciary over the government’s reform plan to weaken the Supreme Court.
