(Jerusalem) Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday dismissed Interior and Health Minister and number two in the government Arie Dery after a court decision.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court invalidated the appointment of Mr. Dery, convicted of tax evasion.
“It is with a heavy heart and much sorrow […] that we are forced to relieve you of your position in government,” Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem attended by Mr. Dery.
He added that the judgment “ignores the will of the people” and that he will strive to find any legal means for Mr. Dery to “contribute to the service of the State of Israel”.
Leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shass party, Arie Dery was named health and interior minister in a complex coalition deal reached in December following Israeli legislative elections on 1er november.
His removal from the government follows the decision of the Supreme Court.
This highest legal body announced in a press release on Wednesday that it had decided by a majority of 10 judges out of 11 “that the appointment of deputy Arié Dery as Minister of the Interior and Health cannot be validated”.
“The Prime Minister must dismiss him,” she added, recalling that Mr. Dery had announced in early 2022 that he was retiring from political life after his conviction for tax evasion. This withdrawal was even a condition set by the courts to avoid prison.
But Mr. Dery was elected to the legislative elections in November and then appointed to the government set up at the end of December by Mr. Netanyahu, with his ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies.
At the end of December, the deputies hastily voted a text, dubbed the “Dery law” by the press, authorizing a person convicted of a crime, but not sentenced to prison, to obtain a ministerial portfolio.
The purpose of this text was to allow Mr. Dery to sit on the executive.
In their reasoning, the judges of the Supreme Court criticized the “Dery law”, without invalidating it, and considered that the appointment of Mr. Dery to the government was “in serious contradiction with the fundamental principles of the State by right “.
The ultra-Orthodox Sephardic party Shas is the second party in the government coalition.
Tutelary figure of Shass, a party accustomed to making and breaking coalitions since the 1980s, Mr. Dery has been a minister in many governments.
In 1993, the Supreme Court had already demanded that he be dismissed when he was interior minister, after being indicted for corruption.
In 2000, he was sentenced to three years in prison and released after serving two-thirds of his sentence.