Israeli high court: Netanyahu must fire key Cabinet ally

JERUSALEM — Israel's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must fire a key ally from the country's new Cabinet, presenting the Israeli leader with a potential coalition crisis and deepening a rift over the power of the courts.

Ten of 11 judges on the high court found that Aryeh Deri, the influential head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party who has served repeatedly in Netanyahu's previous governments, is disqualified from serving as a minister after he was convicted last year for tax offenses and placed on probation as part of a plea deal. Deri has pledged not to quit and met after the ruling with Netanyahu.

“Most of the judges on the panel decided that this appointment suffers from extreme unreasonability, and therefore the prime minister must remove Deri from his position,” the court said in a statement.

The much-anticipated ruling comes as Israel is being roiled by a dispute over sweeping changes to the country's legal system. One such proposal under consideration is the elimination of the court's “reasonability” test when reviewing government decisions.

Critics say the various changes at issue would place too much power in the hands of the government and weaken the Supreme Court. Proponents say they would correct a power imbalance between the executive and judicial branches.

Netanyahu will now have to decide whether he abides by the court ruling and fires his key ally, Deri — or takes the dispute with the judicial system up a notch and defies it. A spokesman for Netanyahu had no immediate comment.

But the leaders of the parties in the ruling coalition decried the ruling as a slap at voters after the Nov. 1 election. In a statement, they vowed to act “in any legal way that is available to us and without delay to correct the injustice and the severe damage caused to the democratic choice and the sovereignty of the people."

Amir Fuchs, senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank, said Netanyahu is unlikely to ignore the ruling because then he'd be in contempt of court and there is no appealing a Supreme Court decision.