Sunday’s Cabinet meeting saw Netanyahu fire Interior and Health Minister Aryeh Deri. Due to a tax conviction last year, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled last week that Deri could not serve as a Cabinet minister. “It is with a sad heart, with tremendous sorrow, and with a very terrible emotion that I am compelled to transfer you from your position as a minister in the government,” Netanyahu said Deri during the Cabinet meeting, according to the PM’s office.
Last month, Netanyahu selected Shas leader Deri to his Cabinet. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court determined that the prime minister “must dismiss Deri from his post” because to his 2022 plea-bargain conviction for tax fraud. Barak Seri, Deri’s confidant, told Army Radio earlier on Sunday that Shas’s coalition members will keep the ministries. According to reporting from West Jerusalem, called the judgment “a very huge blow to Benjamin Netanyahu,” who has pushed to limit the Supreme Court’s powers. Reporter said Netanyahu was “trying to find a path back for Aryeh Deri to go back into the administration.” Last month, Israeli lawmakers allowed ministers who had been convicted but not imprisoned. The judges found Deri’s appointment “very unfair” and declared it “could not stand.” Netanyahu said Sunday that the judgment, which allows Deri’s Shas party to continue in government, “ignores the will of the people.”
The PM pledged to find Deri a legal method to “give to the state of Israel.” Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime leader, wants to reduce the Supreme Court’s power. It will also empower parliament to choose justices and overrule Supreme Court judgments. On Saturday, tens of thousands of Israelis protested the plans in Tel Aviv. In Israel, which has no constitution, the Supreme Court can overturn discriminatory or irrational laws.
