Israel Supreme Court Tells Netanyahu He Must Fire Minister

Israel's Interior and Health Minister Aryeh Deri (C) reacts as he sits between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Justice Minister Yariv Levin (L) during a weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, on January 8, 2023. (AFP)
Israel's Interior and Health Minister Aryeh Deri (C) reacts as he sits between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Justice Minister Yariv Levin (L) during a weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, on January 8, 2023. (AFP)
TT
20

Israel Supreme Court Tells Netanyahu He Must Fire Minister

Israel's Interior and Health Minister Aryeh Deri (C) reacts as he sits between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Justice Minister Yariv Levin (L) during a weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, on January 8, 2023. (AFP)
Israel's Interior and Health Minister Aryeh Deri (C) reacts as he sits between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Justice Minister Yariv Levin (L) during a weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, on January 8, 2023. (AFP)

Israel's Supreme Court ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to remove a senior minister over a past tax fraud conviction, in a setback for the new right-wing coalition government. 

The 10-to-one ruling on Shas party leader Aryeh Deri looks likely to further stoke tensions between the Cabinet and Israel's Supreme Court over government reform plans which aim to rein in the top court. 

"Most of the judges have determined that this appointment is extremely unreasonable and thus the prime minister must remove Deri from office," said a court summary of the ruling. 

Deri, who holds the interior and health portfolios and is due to become finance minister under a rotation deal, confessed to tax fraud last year in a plea deal that spared him jail time. 

Some of the judges in their ruling also cited Deri having previously told the magistrate's court dealing with his tax case, that he would be retiring from politics. 

There was no immediate response to Wednesday's ruling from Netanyahu, who returned to office in December at the head of a hard-right government. But Justice Minister and fellow Likud party member Yariv Levin said the bench had chosen not to respect the people's choice. 

"I will do whatever is necessary to fully repair this glaring injustice done to rabbi Aryeh Deri, the Shas movement and Israeli democracy," Levin said in a statement. 

Levin's reform would increase the government's sway over judicial appointments while limiting the Supreme Court's power to strike down legislation or rule against executive actions, also by removing "reasonability" as a court standard of review. 

The plan, which the government says is needed to rein in judicial overreach by biased elitist judges, has drawn fury among opponents, who say it would undermine judicial independence and weaken democratic checks and balances that underpin the rule of law. 

Coalition partners, including the ultra-nationalist police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, echoed Levin's remarks calling for the plan, yet to be written into law, to be advanced. It is also backed by Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges he denies. 

Shas, which draws much of its support from religious Jews of Middle Eastern descent, won 11 of the Knesset's 120 seats in a Nov. 1 election. It said the ruling was political. "The court decided today that elections are meaningless." 

Political watchdogs had appealed to the Supreme Court to order Netanyahu to strike down Deri's appointment given his recent conviction as well as past offences. In 1999, he was sentenced to three years in jail for taking bribes. 



Bomb Targeting Bus Carrying Security Forces Kills 5 and Wounds 10 in Restive Southwestern Pakistan

An armed Pakistani security official stands guard during an inspection of the scene where a train was hijacked by suspected militants, in Sibi, Pakistan, 15 March 2025. EPA/STRINGER
An armed Pakistani security official stands guard during an inspection of the scene where a train was hijacked by suspected militants, in Sibi, Pakistan, 15 March 2025. EPA/STRINGER
TT
20

Bomb Targeting Bus Carrying Security Forces Kills 5 and Wounds 10 in Restive Southwestern Pakistan

An armed Pakistani security official stands guard during an inspection of the scene where a train was hijacked by suspected militants, in Sibi, Pakistan, 15 March 2025. EPA/STRINGER
An armed Pakistani security official stands guard during an inspection of the scene where a train was hijacked by suspected militants, in Sibi, Pakistan, 15 March 2025. EPA/STRINGER

A roadside bomb exploded near a bus carrying security forces in restive southwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least five officers and wounding 10 others, police said.
The attack occurred in Naushki, a district in Balochistan, said Zafar Zamanani, a local police chief. He said the blast also badly damaged another nearby bus. The dead and wounded were transported to a nearby hospital, The Associated Press said.
Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister of Balochistan, condemned the attack.
No one immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, which days ago ambushed a train, took about 400 people on board hostage and killed 26 hostages before security forces launched an operation and killed all the 33 attackers.
Oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and least populated province. Ethnic Baloch residents have long accused the central government of discrimination — a charge Islamabad denies. Baloch Liberation Army has been demanding independence from the central government.