Tel Aviv—Israel’s Supreme Court struck down the appointment of a minister who is a critical ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, dealing an early challenge to the stability of the newly sworn-in coalition government.
The judges found the appointment of Shas leader
Aryeh Deri
as a minister “extremely unreasonable” in light of his conviction last year for tax evasion. They noted his subsequent promise to quit political life as part of a plea deal and his conviction two decades ago on bribery, fraud and breach-of-trust charges while in office, for which he served nearly two years in prison.
The court, in a 10-1 ruling, said that Mr. Deri can’t continue in his roles as interior, health and rotating finance minister.
The ruling comes just as Mr. Netanyahu’s government is rolling out a plan to overhaul the justice system, which coalition members demanded be expedited in light of the court’s decision on Mr. Deri.
The plan will give the ruling coalition more say in which judges are appointed, allow a simple majority of lawmakers to override the Supreme Court should it strike down legislation and remove the ability for judges to base rulings on the grounds of reasonability, as they did in Mr. Deri’s case.
Activists and the political opposition say the ruling coalition’s proposals, which aim at curbing the power of Israel’s judiciary, could undermine the country’s existing system of checks and balances. Mr. Netanyahu and his allies have defended the wide-ranging proposals as necessary to restrain what they deem rampant judicial overreach.
Israeli law forbids a recent convict from serving as a minister. Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition amended the country’s law before the government was sworn in to allow people recently convicted of crimes to serve as ministers if they had suspended jail terms and didn’t serve time in prison, like Mr. Deri.
The judges in their ruling on Wednesday criticized the amendment to the law for its apparent personal character but didn’t challenge its legality. Still, they considered the appointment unreasonable given Mr. Deri’s criminal record and vow to leave politics.
“[The principle of] reasonableness is not in the written law but has been in our common law for decades,” said Dr.
Amir Fuchs,
a senior researcher at the Jerusalem-based think…
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