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Aryeh Deri returns as Interior Minister after 22 years
Israel’s cabinet yesterday unanimously approved the appointment of Shas leader Aryeh Deri as the new Interior Minister, following the recent resignation of senior Likud leader Silvan Shalom in the wake of sexual impropriety allegations.
Deri was appointed Economy Minister following last March’s election. However, he stood aside from that role several months ago over his refusal to sidestep the recommendation of the Antitrust Authority over the government’s deal with natural gas investors. He was reassigned as Minister of the Negev, Galilee and the Periphery, a role he will maintain, but was assumed to be waiting for a higher profile portfolio.
However, Deri’s return as Interior Minister is not without controversy. He served in this capacity as one of the country’s youngest ever government minsters for five years until 1993, when he was forced to resign over a bribery investigation. Deri and his supporters bitterly protested his innocence and the case galvanised Shas’s traditional Middle Eastern-background, working class support. However, he was eventually found guilty in 2000 of bribery, fraud and breach of trust while Interior Minister and served a 22-month prison sentence.
Prior to re-appointing Deri, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein for an opinion. Weinstein said there was no legal issue with the appointment, but it would send a “problematic message” regarding public trust in government. Netanyahu yesterday said that Deri’s two main tasks would be preventing illegal entry into the country and altering municipal boundaries for more equitable tax distribution.
However, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid condemned Deri’s appointment, saying, “It’s unacceptable that people who have been convicted of crimes would send soldiers to battle or demand our tax money.”
With the role of Economy Minister now vacant and several other roles possibly to be filled, Deri’s a scramble for senior positions is now expected. Zionist Union head and opposition leader Isaac Herzog called Deri’s appointment “just another act in Netanyahu’s circus, in which the ministers themselves don’t even remember where they work.”