Ex-Shas leader, who served two years in jail for fraud, petitions Central Elections Committee.
By MATTHEW WAGNERaryeh deri 224.88 AJ(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Charismatic haredi politician Aryeh Deri has requested that the National Election Committee overlook his criminal record and approve his candidacy for mayor of Jerusalem.
Deri's decision to run for mayor of the nation's capital is the result of a long chain of consultations with rabbinic leaders, politicians and lawyers.
"I've deliberated [on] the move, received advice from Torah sages, spoken with my rabbis [and] with my lawyers and [have] reached the point where I needed to make a decision," Deri told Army Radio.
"The decision is that I will be a contender and will embark on removing the legal obstacles. Obviously, the first step is to request permission from the judge. If the judge grants me permission, I will run," added Deri.
Due to a seven-year ban on political activity for criminals charged with a crime that carries with it a charge of moral turpitude, Deri is prohibited from running for a position in the municipality until mid-2009.
The ban takes effect the day the convict is released from prison.
Deri, who was convicted of bribery while serving as director-general of the Interior Ministry ,was released from prison in 2002.
However, Deri will request that the Election Committee, headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Eliezer Rivlin, allow him to run.
At the time of Deri's conviction, the ban on political activity was just five years. The law was later amended to seven years. Legal experts have argued on behalf of Deri that it is unfair to punish him retroactively.
A source close to Deri said that if Rivlin grants the request, Deri will definitely run for the mayoral position.
"Aryeh has extensive experience in the Interior Ministry," said the source. "He is the most qualified person for the job. And he is the haredi candidate with the best chances of winning."
If Rivlin decides not to grant Deri permission to run, estimated a Shas source, it would only increase the former Shas head's popularity among Sephardi supporters. These supporters are convinced that Deri's conviction was the result of an Ashkenazi-dominated judicial system that saw Deri's political success as a danger to Ashkenazi hegemony.
Another option open to Deri is asking for clemency from President Shimon Peres. However, sources close to Deri guessed that he would never ask for clemency if it entailed admitting he was guilty of accepting bribes.
"Aryeh fought too long to prove he was innocent to suddenly cave in now."
Sources in Shas said that Shas's spiritual mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef had encouraged Deri to run for mayor during a Shabbat afternoon meal at Yosef's home this weekend.
Shas Chairman Eli Yishai, out of deference to Yosef's support for Deri, issued a statement last week saying that Shas would support Deri should he decide to run.
However, Yishai and Deri are political foes. Yishai was openly attacked by Deri's followers during the months following Deri's incarceration. At one event that took place at Nokia Stadium to mark six months of Deri's imprisonment, Yishai was physically assaulted as he left the stadium with Yosef.
Yishai purged Deri's supporters from Shas's ranks to consolidate his power. And Yishai remained at the helm of Shas after Deri was released from prison despite demands by Deri's supporters to have their hero reinstated.
Nevertheless, Yishai knows Shas has to support the tremendously popular Deri's bid to become mayor. Opposing Deri would risk rekindling old animosities within Shas.
A source close to Deri estimated that if Deri is permitted to run he would probably run on an independent list and not on a Shas list.
Deri also reportedly received the blessing of the supreme halachic authority of Ashkenazi Jewry, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.
Although the nonagenarian rabbi did not give Deri his endorsement, he "gave Deri the feeling that he could run," said Elyashiv's great-grandson, Shmuelik Elyashiv.
Shmuelik, an activist of Degel Hatorah, a political party that represents the Lithuanian stream of haredi Jewry, has announced that should Deri run he would personally join the pro-Deri campaign.
"I do not officially represent Degel Hatorah," said Shmuelik. "But I can tell you that there are hundreds of people in the party that feel the way I do."
Deri's decision to run is directly connected with the failure of MK Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism), the other haredi candidate for mayor, to muster the requisite support from the haredi constituency, who make up a disproportionately high percentage of Jerusalem's citizens.
The landslide of opposition to Porush within the haredi community began after Porush plummeted in the pre-election polls against leading candidate Nir Barkat.
This, coupled with the numerous enemies Porush has made during his long political career, have prevented him from uniting Jerusalem's haredi populace behind him.
Shmuelik Elyashiv said Porush defied his great-grandfather during the local elections in Beitar, a haredi settlement of 36,000 located just east of Jerusalem.
"I will not allow a man who rebelled against a Torah sage to become the next mayor of Jerusalem."
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