The Shas Council of Torah Sages denied party leader Arye Deri’s request to resign, stating on Wednesday that he would continue in his role amid the ultra-Orthodox party’s significant losses in the Knesset elections.
The denial of Deri’s resignation came in a letter from the council after the party secured just six seats in last week’s election, compared with 11 in the previous Knesset. It was the lowest number of seats that the party had received in over two decades.
The council had “heard with great sorrow the request by the movement’s chairman, the builder of the world of Torah, Rabbi Arye Deri, to step down,” the letter said.
The letter also noted that it would “forbid him from leaving his position in the movement. We are confident that he will fulfill the will of the sages, as he has always done.”
Deri later released a statement affirming his commitment to remaining in the party after receiving the directive.
Deri faces questions over Shas election losses
“Having received today the unequivocal directive of the esteemed members of the Council of Torah Sages, I accept it without hesitation or reservation, and thank the rabbis for the trust and support they have given me throughout the way,” Deri stated.
Shas initially denied reports that Deri had submitted a resignation letter, rejecting claims that he had formally announced his departure from either the Knesset or the party leadership.
The request to resign follows reported criticism of Deri from within Shas, including accusations that his leadership, along with the party’s positions on haredi military conscription, contributed to its electoral decline.
Ahead of the election, Deri had pushed for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to advance contentious legislation regulating the military service status of haredi yeshiva students as a condition for Shas’s participation in any future government. Critics argued the legislation would not increase haredi conscription to the IDF amid the military’s severe manpower shortage.
Netanyahu had issued a statement earlier in the week supporting Deri despite the party’s low election results. Shas subsequently announced that it would recommend Netanyahu to the president as the candidate to receive the mandate to form the next government.