Israel coalition at risk as court tells Netanyahu to sack minister

ISRAEL was facing a fresh political crisis last night after the country’s supreme court ordered Benjamin Netanyahu to fire a senior minister over a fraud conviction, in a move that risks collapsing the government.

In what Israeli media called a “bombshell” ruling, the supreme court yesterday ordered that Aryeh Deri, a minister with the internal affairs and health portfolios, be dismissed from his post.

Mr Deri, the leader of the ultra-orthodox Shas party, confessed to tax fraud last year making him unfit to hold ministerial office in the eyes of Israel’s supreme court.

The ruling creates a legal and political nightmare for Mr Netanyahu, as the Shas party has threatened to bring down the coalition if Mr Deri does not remain in his post.

It also raises the prospect that Mr Netanyahu’s government, which has promised to curb the supreme court’s powers, could seek legal reforms that would allow Mr Deri to keep his job. It may even ignore the ruling altogether.

Mr Netanyahu has a strained relationship with the Israeli judiciary as he is himself the subject of an ongoing corruption trial on charges of fraud and bribery that he strongly denies.

“Most of the judges have determined that this appointment is extremely unreasonable and thus the prime minister must remove Deri from office,” the court said in its ruling.

Mr Netanyahu’s office did not respond yesterday but an ally in his Likud party accused the court of undermining democracy.

“I will do whatever is necessary to fully repair this glaring injustice done to rabbi Aryeh Deri, the Shas movement and Israeli democracy,” said Yariv Levin, the country’s justice minister.

Mr Levin has advocated legal reforms that would weaken the Israeli judiciary by increasing the government’s influence over judicial appointments and restricting the supreme court’s powers to block legislation.

“The court decided today that elections are meaningless,” said a spokesman for the Shas party, while a senior party figure added: “Netanyahu knows that if Aryeh Deri is not in the government, there is no government.”

Mr Netanyahu was sworn in as prime minister earlier this month following November elections that saw a surge in support for extreme-right parties that now prop up his coalition.