You don’t have to go far back to find a ruler who has fallen out of favor without experiencing the usual state of grace: in October, British Conservative Liz Truss resigned after spending a month and a half at 10 Downing Street and still unknowingly playing the leading role in a losing bet over the longevity and that of a lettuce. The Israelis know Benjamin Netanyahu so well that they bet nothing on the future of the man who was in power the longest. But for the sixth time, the Likud leader heads the most extreme and most religious – and also the most fragile – coalition government.
Proof of this was the demonstration that brought together tens of thousands of people in several cities on Saturday night against the judicial reform proposals, and the resignation of the deputy prime minister and leader of the Shas party, on Sunday, days after the Supreme Court invalidated his nomination declared.
“It is with a heavy heart, great sadness and a very difficult feeling that I am forced to dismiss you from your post as minister,” Netanyahu told Aryeh Deri at the cabinet meeting. The tone already foreshadowed the vital interest of the ultra-Orthodox party not to let the coalition fall, but Netanyahu added that he would “seek any legal way” for Deri, hitherto minister with the portfolios of Interior Affairs and Health, to get back to the executive branch. Netanyahu further condemned the Supreme Court’s order: “A regrettable decision that ignores the will of the people.”
The Supreme Court’s decision, taken by 10 votes to one against, condemned the “extreme unreasonableness” of nominating Deri for a government post given his criminal record. Last year he was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence for tax fraud and, as part of the deal, pledged to resign from parliament and give up political life. The agreement fell on deaf ears, as Deri ran in November’s election, with his party electing 11 of 120 deputies.
Deri’s troubles with the law go back much further. He was the youngest ever minister in Israel, aged 29, as part of the coalition led by Yitzhak Rabin, in 1992. At that time, he was already under investigation for various crimes, so he promised in writing to resign, was accused.
Months later, before the Knesset lifted Deri’s immunity, the Supreme Court decided to remove him from government. “The crimes Minister Deri is accused of having committed are of the utmost seriousness, and the failure to exercise authority [do primeiro-ministro] to remove him from his position amounts to an extreme lack of cause,” the judges then concluded. Deri was finally convicted of corruption, fraud and breach of trust in 1999, having served a two-year prison sentence.
At the start of this crisis is a judicial reform proposal that would, on the one hand, curtail the supervisory powers of the Supreme Court and, on the other hand, strengthen parliamentary powers (in particular the “derogation clause”, according to which the Knesset can overturn a Supreme Court ruling ) and giving the government a say in judicial appointments.
In the background is not only Deri. Netanyahu faces three counts of fraud, breach of trust and corruption. This attempt to subdue the judiciary is leading to more and more street protests. In Tel Aviv alone, police counted 110,000 people on Saturday.
Given the government’s plans, the media say Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara is considering forcing Netanyahu to take a leave of absence from the post of prime minister. Baharav-Miara believes plans to reform the judiciary violate conflict of interest rules, which is why Netanyahu should not participate in matters that could affect his business.
Source: DN
