Shas leader Deri quits Knesset, fellow MKs following suit
Move has little practical significance, as parliament already dissolved, but underlines implosion of Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party
The head of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri, submitted his formal resignation from parliament on Tuesday evening, theoretically defying demands from his party’s religious council that he remain at the helm. However, his move has no practical significance since the Knesset has already dissolved ahead of the March 17, 2015, elections, and the question of whether Deri will continue to lead Shas may remain unresolved for several more weeks.
Deri formally presented his letter of resignation to outgoing Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein at 7:30 p.m. The resignation will take effect on Thursday evening. “I have nothing to add,” Deri told reporters moments after submitting his resignation letter. “Gentlemen, leave me be.”
The nine remaining members of the Shas Knesset faction (excluding former chairman Eli Yishai, who recently split from the party) later threatened to follow in Deri’s footsteps. The nine MKs notified the party’s spiritual leadership, the Council of Torah Sages, that if Deri truly leaves, they intend to do so as well.
With the Knesset out of session until after the elections the resignation game appeared largely symbolic, and it remained unclear whether the MKs intended to resign from the current Knesset only, or whether they were threatening to drop out from the party’s list for the coming election as well.
However, the Knesset must at all times have 120 members, and such a mass resignation would necessitate the swearing in of ten new Shas MKs — who would hold the positions for the next three months.
Ultra-Orthodox news website Kikar Hashabat reported that Deri’s place in the Knesset is to be filled by Lior Edri, a close acquaintance of Moshe Yosef, son of the party’s late spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef.
During the day on Tuesday, Deri made a round of visits to the homes of members of the Council of Torah Sages. During the meetings Deri impressed upon the council members that he was serious in his desire to leave politics.
During an interview with Channel 2, Shas MK Yitzhak Cohen admitted that the party was in dire trouble.
“Shas is not in an easy position at the moment,” he said. “This is a real crisis. I hope he won’t resign.”
Cohen said that party members were trying to persuade Deri to change his mind.
The development, which threatens to cause the party’s collapse, came the day after Deri sent a letter to Council of Sages telling them he wanted out of politics after a video was the leaked showing the late Ovadia Yosef denouncing Deri and apparently favoring his rival, former chairman Eli Yishai, who recently left Shas and started his own party.
The letter, which pundits in Hebrew newscasts Monday night said was a symbolic protest on Deri’s part, was rejected by the council, which instructed Deri to remain leader of the party.
“The pain that pierced my heart yesterday was worse than when Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, of blessed memory, died,” Deri wrote. “The heart is torn in light of the terrible desecration of God’s name, the contempt for the Torah and the insult to our teacher’s honor.”
The veteran politician then declared that he was returning the mandate placed upon him by the council to act as chairman and retiring from politics.
After receiving Deri’s missive, the council of sages, which governs all major policy decisions in the Sephardic ultra-orthodox party, called a meeting to review the matter and later said that it turned down Deri’s request.
In a speech on Tuesday night, Yishai denied that he was behind the leak of the video material. Speaking at a political gathering in Sderot, he said he had set up his new party to prevent another Oslo-style peace process with the Palestinians and to “protect the land of Israel” — an apparent dig at the more dovish Deri.
Sources within Shas indicated that there may be hundreds of hours of as-yet-unseen video showing Yosef speaking on a range of topics, some of which could be used as ammunition in the clash between Deri and Yishai.
The video that was aired on Sunday, which documented a conversation that took place in 2008, set Shas on its heels as the party was already reeling from the defection of Yishai, who started his own party to compete with the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox powerhouse.
Yosef expressed fears over Deri’s possible return to the party after the latter spent two years in prison and several years out of public service following a graft conviction in 1999.
“Thirty, 40 percent will leave [Shas]. Why? Because he was convicted in court. Why take a thief or bribe taker?” Ovadia asked rhetorically.
Deri returned to politics after a 13-year hiatus and was reinstated in 2012 by Yosef as Shas party co-chairman together with Yishai, who headed the ultra-Orthodox party during Deri’s incarceration.
Despite his harsh criticisms, Yosef appointed Deri as sole party chairman in 2013, shortly before his death.
In the tape, though, Yosef was heard clearly putting his weight behind Yishai.
“[Deri] will not listen to me, I know this from experience, he is too independent,” the rabbi told his son in the recording. “Your mother was in tears — is this not evil? I’ve spoken to him several times, and he did not want to listen,” he said.
The long-standing rivalry between Yishai and Deri was reignited after Yosef’s death in 2013. The two quarreled repeatedly over Yishai’s role in the party, with Deri accusing Yishai of undermining him in a bid to reclaim the chairmanship.
Tensions came to a head earlier this month as Yishai broke away from Shas and formed a new party, Ha’am Itanu (The Nation Is with Us).