-- Minister of Religious Affairs Michael Malkieli
By all accounts Deri is smart and an important figure and talented in many realms and even tempered. By no means is the lack of any one person from being available for consultations going to cost lives. The armed forces will do just fine without Deri, no matter how important he is and no matter how much he has contributed in the past.
By all accounts Deri is smart and an important figure and talented in many realms and even tempered. By no means is the lack of any one person from being available for consultations going to cost lives. The armed forces will do just fine without Deri, no matter how important he is and no matter how much he has contributed in the past.
I also think all the Shas people are on a reverse psychology campaign. They probably think that the more they accuse the supreme Court of invalidating Deri before it actually happens they will influence the court to go in the other direction and confirm his ability to serve in this capacity.
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Is there actually a law in Israel dealing with who may or may not serve as a minister? Or is this something the Supreme Court made up.
ReplyDeleteIt's a basic law. The current Government amended the law to only include those that have been incarcerated.
DeleteOK, so there is a law, and the law was changed. I take it that Deri has never been incarcerated. So what is the basis for the Supreme Court to say he can't serve? Sounds lawless to me.
DeleteDeri served jail time for his first offence where he was found guilty of bribery. He served 22 months of a 3 year sentence. Moral turpitude was assigned to that conviction banning him from the Knesset for 7 years. He served out his time and returned to the head of Shas and has held cabinet positions since then.
DeleteLast year, he took a plea deal for financial crimes. The question of moral turpitude was never decided in his case because his plea deal included a promise to step down from public life, so it would not be an issue. He resigned his Knesset seat. The Government collapsed a little while later.
I am not a lawyer. As I understand it, there are a number of legal obstacles that have come up in allowing Deri to become a minister.
- Reasonableness Test - Is it reasonable for a person who has been twice been convicted of financial crimes (the most recent a year ago), be allowed to serve as a minister. Part of the judicial reform legislation coming down the pipe is to ban the use of the reasonableness test.
- Does the change of the previous law, constitute a 'personal law'. I don't know how the mechanics of this work but apparently it is a no-no for Basic Laws. Deri refused to join the Government unless he was appointed a minister at the same time as everyone else.
- Was the change of the previous law, a clarification of the existing law (as the Government has argued) or is it considered a new law. I don't understand the ramifications of this but apparently they do exist when coming to changing basic laws.
- Is Deri in violation of his plea agreement to step down from public life.
No matter how the court rules, the Government's plan is to make their ruling moot.
recommended reading-my promised land- chapter titled j'accuse- describes r' deri's background and political base kt
ReplyDelete"R'"?
Deletereb or rabbi-an all purpose abbreviation
Deletekt