Deri says calls for talks on judicial overhaul are just an attempt to thwart plan

Shas party leader MK Aryeh Deri slams calls from opposition leaders and President Isaac Herzog to engage in dialogue as attempts to derail the government’s judicial reform platform, which is firmly supported by Deri’s Shas party.

“We are open to discussion,” Deri says at the start of Shas’s Knesset faction meeting but then says: “You can’t use discussion to stop a process you want to stop.”

Justice Minister Yariv Levin has brushed off all attempts to slow the brisk pace of the legislative overhaul he is leading.

As protests continue to balloon against the reforms, a minority of voices have called for violence against Netanyahu and have been condemned across the political spectrum

Deri adds his own call to “uproot” these phenomena.”

“Everyone who makes such a call should know he’s an outcast from society,” Deri says.