Aryeh Deri

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Aryeh Deri

| native_name = {{Nobold|{{Script/Hebrew|אריה דרעי}}}}

| native_name_lang = he

| image = אריה דרעי.jpg

| caption = Deri in 2015

| birth_name = Aryeh Makhlouf Deri

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1959|2|17}}

| birth_place = Meknes, Morocco

| nationality = Israeli

| death_date =

| death_place =

| spouse = {{Marriage|Yaffa Cohen|1981}}

| children = 9

| office1 = Ministerial roles

| suboffice1 = Minister of Internal Affairs

| subterm1 = 1988–1992

| suboffice2 = Minister without Portfolio

| subterm2 = 1993

| suboffice3 = Minister of Internal Affairs

| subterm3 = 1993

| suboffice4 = Minister of the Economy

| subterm4 = 2015

| suboffice5 = Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galilee

| subterm5 = 2015–2021

| suboffice6 = Minister of Interior

| subterm6 = 2016–2021

| suboffice7 = Minister of Religious Services

| subterm7 = 2018

| office8 =

| suboffice8 = Minister of the Interior

| subterm8 = 2022–2023

| suboffice9 = Minister of Health

| subterm9 = 2022–2023

| suboffice10 = Vice Prime Minister

| subterm10 = 2022–2023

| suboffice11 = Shas

| subterm11 = 1992–1999

| suboffice12 = Shas

| subterm12 = 2013–2015

| suboffice13 = Shas

| subterm13 = {{nowrap|2015–2016}}

| suboffice14 = Shas

| suboffice15 = Shas

| suboffice16 = Shas

| subterm14 = 2019–2020

| subterm15 = 2021

| subterm16 = 2022–

| office11 = Faction represented in the Knesset

}}

Aryeh Makhlouf Deri ({{Langx|he|אריה מכלוף דרעי}}; {{Langx|ar|أريه مخلوف درعي}}), also Arie Deri, Arye Deri, or Arieh Deri (born 17 February 1959), is an Israeli politician and one of the founders of the Shas political party who served as the Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Health, and Minister of the Interior and Periphery under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from December 2022 to January 2023.{{Cite book|title=The Story of Shas|last=Dayan|first=Aryeh|year=1999}} Previously he served as the Minister of the Interior, Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galilee, Minister of the Economy, as well as a member in the Security Cabinet of Israel.

In 1999, Deri was convicted of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust; he was given a three-year jail sentence. At the end of 2012, ahead of the elections for the nineteenth Knesset, he returned to lead the Shas party. He was placed in second position on the list, thus being re-elected to the Knesset. In May 2013, he was re-appointed to the role of Shas chairman. In December 2021, it was reported that Deri would resign from the Knesset as part of a plea deal for tax offenses.[https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/shas-chair-deri-to-resign-from-knesset-in-plea-bargain-report/ "Shas chair Deri to resign from Knesset in plea deal that lets him stay in politics — report."] The Times of Israel, 20 December 2021. After re-entering the Knesset in the 2022 elections, he was appointed as Vice Prime Minister, Interior Minister, and Health Minister in the thirty-seventh government in December 2022. However, due to a January 2023 ruling by the Supreme Court of Israel that Deri was not eligible for a ministerial position due to his criminal convictions and the terms of his plea deal, he was dismissed from his official posts in the Israeli cabinet.{{Cite news |last=Kershner |first=Isabel |date=18 January 2023 |title=Israel's Supreme Court Orders Removal of a Netanyahu Minister |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/world/middleeast/israel-aryeh-deri-netanyahu.html |access-date=18 January 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Kershner |first=Isabel |date=22 January 2023 |title=Netanyahu Fires Top Minister |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/world/middleeast/israel-netanyahu-minister.html |access-date=22 January 2023|issn=0362-4331}}

Early life

Aryeh Makhlouf Deri{{Cite book|title=The Story of Shas|last=Dayan|first=Aryeh|year=1997|pages=66|quote=For many years, Deri was known as "Aryeh Deri", and he signed with this name in the Book of Laws when he became the Minister of Interior, even that in the candidates list to the Knesset his name written as "Aryeh Makhlouf Deri". During the elections for the 20th Knesset, he placed a lot of emphasis on sectarianism, and began to be presented in his full name, "Aryeh Makhlouf Deri".}} was born in Meknes, Morocco, to Esther ({{née|Azougi}}) and Eliyahu Deri. His parents lived in one of the new wealthy districts of the city and were influenced by French culture. His father owned a successful tailoring business; his family were traditional Jews, but not Orthodox. At the age of 5, Deri was enrolled at Ozar Hatorah, a school that combined secular and Orthodox Jewish religious education. In 1968, at the age of 9, his family made Aliyah and settled in Bat Yam. Deri attended a religious boarding school in Hadera. In 1973, he began to study at Porat Yosef, a leading Sephardic yeshiva in Jerusalem. In May 1976, he transferred to Hebron Yeshiva, where he received his rabbinical ordination.

After completing his yeshiva studies, Deri was appointed secretary of the Haredi settlement of Ma'ale Amos, and joined the Gush Etzion Regional Council. In 1983, he was appointed administrative manager of Lev Banim Yeshiva.

Political career

= Establishment of Shas =

In 1984, he founded and began to serve as a secretary to Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah of Shas.{{cite news |title=Top Israeli politician goes to jail |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/908403.stm |work=BBC News |date=3 September 2000}} During 1985, he served as an assistant to Interior Minister, Yitzhak Peretz, and at the end of the same year he was appointed to the role of the Secretary General of Shas. In June 1986, he enlisted to a shortened time of 3 months in the Israel Defense Forces.

= Interior minister =

Upon completing his military service at the age of 27, and after the elections for the 12th Knesset, he was appointed interior minister in the government of Yitzhak Shamir. Deri was sworn in on 22 December 1988. At 29, he was the youngest government minister in Israel's history.

As interior minister, he abolished the censorship of plays in theaters.{{Cite news|url=http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3722303,00.html|title=תבוטל הצנזורה על סרטים|last=יודילוביץ'|first=מרב|date=27 May 2009|newspaper=Ynet|language=he|access-date=1 January 2017}}

When the Israeli Labor Party sought to break away from the government and create a narrow coalition, Deri and Haim Ramon, a Knesset member from the Labor Party, initiated negotiations to create a Labor-Haredi alignment. A motion of no confidence was submitted on 15 March 1990, but five Knesset members on behalf of Shas party were absent from the vote. This agreement was later nicknamed "The dirty trick". Two rabbis, Menachem Mendel Schneerson and Elazar Shach, strongly opposed cooperating with the political left. As a result, the deal fell through, and the Labor Party chairman, Shimon Peres, failed to form a coalition. At the end, Yitzhak Shamir, Likud chairman, established a government of Likud–Right–Haredis, where Deri continued to serve as Interior Minister.

After the Labor Party, led by Yitzhak Rabin, won the elections in 1992, the Shas party joined the coalition, and Deri continued to serve as Interior Minister, and, for the first time, as a Knesset member. He remained Minister of the Interior until May 1993, when he became a Minister without Portfolio, before returning to the Interior Ministry in June. He left the cabinet in September 1993. He was re-elected to the Knesset in 1996.

= Conviction =

Deri was convicted of taking $155,000 in bribes while serving as the interior minister, and was given a three-year jail sentence in 2000. He was replaced by Eli Yishai.{{cite news| title= In a Divided Israel, Thousands Rally for the Ex-Shas Party Leader as He Goes to Jail| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07E2D71130F937A3575AC0A9669C8B63 | first=Deborah| last=Sontag| date=4 September 2000|work=The New York Times| access-date=10 October 2007}}{{cite news|title=Israeli political leader goes to jail after emotional send-off| url=http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/09/03/shas.jail/| last=Kessel| first=Jerrold| date=3 September 2000| publisher=CNN| access-date=10 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050327141431/http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/09/03/shas.jail/|archive-date=27 March 2005}} Due to good behavior, Deri was released from Maasiyahu Prison in 2002, after serving 22 months.{{cite news| title=Former Shas leader to leave prison| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2122057.stm| date=11 July 2002|work=BBC News | access-date=10 October 2007}}

= Return to public life =

In June 2011, he announced that he was planning to return to politics.{{cite news| title=Former Shas leader announces intent to return to politics| url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/former-shas-leader-announces-intent-to-return-to-politics-1.369098| date=22 June 2011|work=Haaretz| access-date=22 June 2011}} He was re-elected to the Knesset in 2013. However, on 28 December 2014, Channel 2 released video footage in which Ovadia Yosef, the founder of Shas, attacked Deri, calling him a wicked man and a thief. The same day, Deri handed a resignation letter to the rabbinical board of Shas, who refused to accept it. On the following day, Deri presented his resignation to the Knesset speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein,{{cite news | url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election-2015/.premium-1.634243 | title=After split with Shas, Yishai releases 'doomsday weapon' tape on Deri | work=Haaretz | date=29 December 2014 | access-date=17 March 2015 | author=Ettinger, Yair}} with his seat taken by Lior Edri.

File:Herzliya Conference 2016 1177.jpg Leader and Leader of the Opposition Isaac Herzog, 2016]]

Despite his resignation from the Knesset, Deri headed the Shas list for the March 2015 election, and was subsequently appointed Ministry of the Economy and Minister for the Development of the Negev and Galilee in the new government. He left his post as Minister of the Economy on 3 November 2015, reportedly over an unpopular gas monopoly deal, and was replaced by Netanyahu, who promised to speed up the deal.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} He was appointed Minister of the Interior on 11 January 2016. He resigned from the Knesset in October 2016 to allow Michael Malchieli to take his seat, whilst remaining a minister.[http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/480580/interior-minister-shal-leader-deri-resigns-from-knesset.html Interior Minister Shal Leader Deri Resigns From Knesset] Yeshiva World, 31 October 2016 He temporarily served as Minister of Religious Services in 2018 after the death of David Azulai.[https://www.knesset.gov.il/govt/eng/GovtByNumber_eng.asp Twentieth Knesset: Government 34] Knesset

On 17 April 2020, a senior Likud Minister, speaking unattributably, told Al-Monitor that Deri was mediating the political coalition talks between Netanyahu and leader of the opposition Blue and White alliance Benny Gantz.{{cite news|url=https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/04/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-rightwing-camp-national-unity.html|title=Netanyahu's right-wing bloc starts cracking|first=Mazal|last=Mualem|publisher=Al-Monitor|date=17 April 2020|access-date=17 April 2020}} It was also reported Deri "might even be open to a new alliance with Blue and White — now that its anti-clerical component, Yair Lapid, quit the party and went his own way", and would only commit to remaining with Netanyahu's coalition until the next election.

= Subsequent criminal conviction and resignation =

On 20 November 2018, Israeli police ended a criminal investigation into Deri with a recommendation to state prosecutors that he be indicted for "committing fraud, breach of trust, obstructing court proceedings, money laundering, and tax offenses."{{cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-recommend-indicting-interior-minister-deri-for-fraud-breach-of-trust/|title=Police recommend indicting Interior Minister Deri for fraud, breach of trust|work=The Times of Israel|date=20 November 2018|access-date=7 August 2019}} In 2019, this recommendation was adopted in full by the state prosecutor, Shai Nitzan, but in 2021 the attorney general of Israel, Avichai Mandelblit, dropped all the charges except the tax offenses.{{cite news|url=https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-aryeh-deri-faces-indictment-for-offenses-1001356507|title=Aryeh Deri faces indictment for tax offenses|work=Globes|date=10 January 2021|access-date=7 February 2021}} Deri continued to serve as Interior Minister, and after losing the ministry with the formation of the thirty-sixth government of Israel, as an MK and chair of the Shas party.

On 23 January 2022, he resigned from the Knesset as part of a plea bargain.{{Cite web|url=https://m.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-694482|title=Shas head Arye Deri admits to, and is convicted of, tax crimes|work=The Jerusalem Post|first=Yonah|last=Jeremy Bob|date=25 January 2022|access-date=16 September 2022}} Deri admitted to underreporting the value of property sold to his brother Shlomo Deri to avoid land tax, failure to report income from the sales and evading tax on NIS 534,000 of income, by funneling payments from Green Ocean investment fund to his brother.{{Cite web|title=No longer an MK, Deri convicted of tax offenses in plea bargain|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/no-longer-an-mk-deri-convicted-of-tax-offenses-in-plea-bargain/|date=25 January 2022|access-date=7 February 2022|website=The Times of Israel|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=שנת מאסר על תנאי: ביהמ"ש השלום קיבל את הסדר הטיעון בעניין דרעי|url=https://www.maariv.co.il/news/politics/Article-895072|date=1 February 2022|access-date=7 February 2022|website=maariv.co.il|language=he}} Deri received a year's suspended sentence, and was also ordered to pay a NIS 180,000 fine. As part of the plea deal, no determination was made as to whether Deri's crimes carried "moral turpitude", which would have barred him from seeking election to the Knesset within 7 years of the plea agreement.{{Cite news|last=Azulay|first=Moran|date=23 January 2022|title=Shas leader Aryeh Deri submits his resignation from Knesset|language=en|work=Ynet|url=https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bjk0hcq6y|access-date=7 February 2022}}{{Cite web |date=2 February 2022 |title=Rabbi Deri Vows to Remain Shas Chairman to Continue Fighting Government |url=https://hamodia.com/2022/02/02/rabbi-deri-vows-to-remain-shas-chairman-to-continue-fighting-government/ |access-date=7 February 2022 |work=Hamodia |language=en}}

= Return to the Knesset =

On 2 February 2022, Deri gave a speech in which he accused his prosecution of being motivated by his Moroccan heritage, and expressed his intent to remain as leader of Shas.{{Cite web |date=2 February 2022 |title=Israel: Aryeh Deri claims 'racism' over corruption trial |url=https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/politics/1643814212-israel-aryeh-deri-claims-racism-over-corruption-trial |access-date=22 January 2023 |website=i24news}} Deri led the party through the 2022 election, and returned to the Knesset after it won eleven seats.{{Cite web |date=18 January 2023 |title=בג"ץ רומס את בחירת הרוב ואינו מכבד את החלטת הכנסת |url=https://mida.org.il/2023/01/18/בגץ-רומס-את-בחירת-הרוב-ואינו-מכבד-את-הח/ |access-date=22 January 2023 |website=Mida |language=he-IL}} Deri became Minister of Interior, Minister of Health and Vice Prime Minister in the 37th government of Israel on 29 December 2022.{{cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/inking-deal-with-shas-likud-finishes-divvying-out-govt-posts-to-coalition-partners/|title=Likud inks deal with Shas, finishes doling out government posts to coalition allies|work=The Times of Israel|date=8 December 2022|access-date=13 November 2023}}

On 18 January 2023, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that Deri was not allowed to hold a position as a cabinet minister due to his conviction for tax offenses. As a result, Deri was consensually dismissed from the cabinet on 22 January; his dismissal went into effect on 24 January.{{Cite web |date=22 January 2023 |title=חמישה ימים אחרי פסיקת בג"ץ: נתניהו פיטר את דרעי |url=https://www.mako.co.il/news-politics/2023_q1/Article-2816c1175a8d581026.htm |access-date=22 January 2023 |website=N12}} In his place, Deri chose Michael Malchieli as the acting Minister of Interior and Yoav Ben-Tzur as the acting Minister of Health.{{cite web|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-24/ty-article/.premium/shas-lawmakers-to-serve-as-acting-health-and-interior-ministers/00000185-e30d-d922-a1d5-f73d06070000|title=Shas Lawmakers to Serve as Acting Health and Interior Ministers|first=Noa|last=Shpigel|work=Haaretz|date=24 January 2023|access-date=24 January 2023}}

Personal life

Deri married Yaffa Cohen in 1981. They have nine children. He lives in the Bayit VeGan neighborhood of Jerusalem.{{Cite news|date=26 April 2018|script-title=he:מחיר השלום|trans-title=The Price of Peace|newspaper=Mishpacha|language=he|issue=1354|page=4}}

In addition to Hebrew, Deri is fluent in Moroccan Arabic and French.{{Cite web |title=Knesset Member Aryeh Machluf Deri |trans-title= |url=https://main.knesset.gov.il/en/mk/apps/mk/mk-personal-details/41 |access-date=23 January 2023 |publisher=Knesset}} His older brother, Yehuda Deri, was the Chief Rabbi and Av Beit Din of the city of Be'er Sheva. He was also a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council. Yehuda died in July 2024.{{cite news|url=https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-809601|title=Rabbi Yehuda Deri, brother of Arye Deri, dies at age 66|publisher=Jerusalem Post|date=July 9, 2024|accessdate=July 9, 2024}} Another brother of Deri, Shlomo, is a lawyer.