New ‘Deri Law’ Passes Committee Vote, Heads for First Knesset Reading

The law proposal known as “Deri Law 2,” intended to enable Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to re-appoint Shas chairman MK Rabbi Aryeh Deri as minister, passed a Knesset committee vote on Wednesday morning, and will now head to the Knesset plenum for its first reading.

The law was initiated by Shas MK Moshe Arbel, and it would allow Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to re-appoint Deri, after the court and attorney general forced him to fire Deri from the Cabinet in January.

The bill passed 9-6 in the Special Knesset Committee for Amendments to Basic Law: The Government, led by Likud MK Ofir Katz. It may be put to a vote on its first reading already later on Wednesday.

The law proposal is an amendment to Basic Law: The Government.

The bill’s supporters argue that the High Court’s ruling was an improper intervention into political decisions. They also argued that Deri did not fool the courts because he never pledged that he would quit politics for good.