Against the background of the political storm: The weekly meeting of the Shas faction turned today (Monday) into a show of support for the party chairman Aryeh Deri, After he was dismissed from his position as a minister following his disqualification at the High Court. During the meeting, Deri spoke for the first time since his dismissal from the positions of Minister of the Interior and Health, and Deri stated that “they did not warn Netanyahu that this was unreasonable, I am afraid that they failed him on purpose.”
Later it became known that after Deri’s dismissal it was decided that Michael Malchiali will serve as interior minister, while Haim Biton will serve as the Minister of Health.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who joined the yeshiva, said: “My friends and brothers Aryeh Deri, we are subject to a flood of endless false and false propaganda. Its guiding line is ‘the end of democracy’. Well, we are not dealing with the end of democracy, but with saving democracy, Netanyahu said.
“What is democracy? It is first of all the rule of the majority and respect for the rights of the individual. How do you guarantee that the rule of the majority will also protect the rights of the individual? How can a minority not dominate the majority? By balancing the three authorities – the judiciary, the legislature and the executive. This balance has been violated in the State of Israel for decades The last few years. You won’t know that it was violated because the propaganda channels don’t tell you what the Wall Street Journal said, which says that in Israel there is something that does not exist in any democracy, there is no such imbalance in any democracy, and therefore the possibility of preserving the rights of the majority and the individual was thrown aside. We are coming to restore this balance to Israel, which was here for its first 50 years and then no one said ‘end to democracy,'” added the Prime Minister.
A witness said, “We are in a fight against an unprecedented false propaganda that is constantly fueled by lies and deliberate lies. We are not deterred and we will not be deterred. The decision forced us that Minister Aryeh Deri will not serve in the government at the moment, but I do not intend to give him up. Because it is not right. 400 A thousand people voted for Deri as a senior minister, there is not one of our two million voters who did not want to see Deri in our government. That is why there was a serious damage to democracy here and we will fix it.”
Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gabir He also participated in the meeting and said that “If Deri had joined the Bennet-Lapid government, this would not have happened. We are committed to Aryeh returning to the front of the stage as soon as possible. We will not give in to any pressure or agenda.”
Deri: “They tried to thwart the Prime Minister”
Chairman of Shas, Aryeh Deri, He spoke and said: “I want to start the speech with an apology, I want to apologize to all those whom we disappointed yesterday at the cabinet meeting, we disappointed them by coming to the meeting yesterday to deliver the health basket that was so necessary, I apologize for disappointing them, that Prime Minister Netanyahu expected him to do exercises And he will not fire and evade and listen to such and such advice, he did it with great pain, sorrow, and protest, he fired, and we received the letter, and the coalition continues and the government continues and everything will fall into place peacefully, we operate according to the law, we are not an anarchy and we will not allow Israel to fall to anarchists who shout above all in what”.
Deri continued: “Did you believe that officials in the State of Israel appointed by the government sit in rooms and discuss whether to declare fortifications, whether to make a literal coup d’état, and we, who come legally to reform, to return governance back to the legislative authority, I read the verdict, I have some comments – The Knesset appointed, where is the extreme implausibility of the Knesset? Where are the 63 MKs who acted, where is their extreme improbability? They were legally elected. How did Prime Minister Netanyahu, who thought that after the elections, when the people had their say, after several years of lack of governance in Israel, when there is finally a stable coalition, no one warned the Prime Minister that he was acting in extreme unreasonableness when he arrived and gave the appointment of a A party with 11 seats.”
He also noted: “No one warned Netanyahu, suddenly now the prime minister is standing and they are discussing whether he acted unreasonably, no one warned him, I’m afraid, maybe someone wants to fail him on purpose. In court – they are discussing the laws of evidence, but how can you say To the Prime Minister of Israel that he acted with extreme unreasonableness, four judges say that the Prime Minister did not act unreasonable The people and the will of the public.”
“It is clear that if the Knesset of Israel, if we sincerely want to serve the public that elected us, and I personally as the one who headed an election campaign, we have an iron obligation to see to it that they return the ballot and the vote that these people – it was taken from them, we will not forgive the public’s honor ours, and we will make sure that the power returns to the public.”
“The most central and most attractive argument against Levin’s reform – is it saying that the rule of the majority, the role of the court is to take care of the minorities, the minority of the weaker classes need someone to take care of them? Who will take care of him? If we talk about reasonableness, we are not the “enlightened public”, we have a completely different reasonableness. The method of appointing judges is very wrong, the method of reasonableness, concern for minorities, so where, who will take care of all the weak strata, who will take care of the Jewish identity of the State of Israel, and there is no chance that the current ones who are appointed today will follow the will of the people when it comes to Jewish identity. This is not my personal struggle. I am here because I have a real commitment, we worked hard to overthrow the bad government,” he concluded.
Deri added: “The most central and most attractive argument against Levin’s reform – is it saying that the rule of the majority, the role of the court is to take care of the minorities, the minority of the weaker classes need someone to take care of them? Who will take care of him? If we talk about reasonableness, we are not the “enlightened public”, we have a completely different reasonableness. The method of appointing judges is very wrong, the method of reasonableness, concern for minorities, so where, who will take care of all the weak strata, who will take care of the Jewish identity of the State of Israel, and there is no chance that the current ones who are appointed today will follow the will of the people when it comes to Jewish identity. This is not my personal struggle. I am here because I have a real commitment, we worked hard to overthrow the bad government.”
Justice Minister Levin (Photo: Yonatan Zindel, Flash 90, Hadas Proosh and Yonatan Zindel, Flash 90)Also the Minister of Justice Rival Levin He spoke in the Shas faction and said that: “In a democracy, the one who elects and determines who will be the government and who will be the ministers and members of the Knesset is the public, the people. Sometimes directly in the elections and sometimes through the Knesset, which trusted the government and its ministers – including Rabbi Aryeh Deri. A place where the judge determines who in his eyes deserves to be a minister, according to some opinion given by a legal advisor, this is something that can be called by many names, democracy is not. The rule of the judge is not the rule of law.”
“In a democratic country, the most basic thing is to respect the people’s decision, even when you think differently. When people sit and use the enormous power they have, of the judiciary, and determine who will be a minister, this is something that cannot be accepted. I appeal not only to the citizens of Israel who supported us, but Even for the many who did not support us and who do not support Rabbi Deri – this struggle with these decisions of an unelected authority, instead of Knesset representatives, is everyone’s struggle. Even for those who did not support Shas. Aryeh, I stand with you in this important struggle. We will win it , for the benefit of all the citizens of Israel,” he added.
Gideon Sa’ar at the faction meeting (photo: Mark Israel Salem)Former Minister of Justice, MK Gideon Saar In response to the Shas faction meeting: “A day after Deri’s dismissal from the government, the Shas faction meeting turned into an embarrassing and shameful show of delegitimization of the Supreme Court’s ruling. On the agenda: a new combine that will try to violate the ruling and appoint Deri. And this Exactly the essence of the Netanyahu-Deri “reform”: changing the system of the regime in favor of their personal interests.”
MK Merav Cohen On Twitter: “The Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Knesset, the Ministers of Education, Finance and Justice of the State of Israel are making a pilgrimage to the Shas meeting to convey a message to the public: There is no need to uphold the law, if you are part of the government. If you took a bribe, if you evaded taxes, if you lied to the High Court, it’s not bad. We will make sure to “fix the judicial system” so that you can become a minister in the State of Israel again.”