Katie Derham

Biography

Arie Deri was born on February 17, 1959, in Meknes, Morocco, to Esther (née Azougi) and Eliyahu. His parents lived in one of the new wealthy districts of the city, and were influenced by the French culture. His father owned a successful business of tailoring, and his family were traditional Jews, but not religious. When he turned 5, he began to learn in Ozar Hatorah, a school for Orthodox Jewish education, and excelled in his studies. In 1968, as he turned 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 yeshiva, where he received his rabbinical ordination. In 1981, he married Yaffa Cohen. The young couple were financially supported by a couple of lonely Holocaust survivors from New York.

In addition to Hebrew, Deri is fluent in Arabic and French. His older brother, Yehuda Deri, is the Chief Rabbi and Av Beit Din of the city Be'er Sheva. He is also a member of The Chief Rabbinate Council. Another brother of Deri, Shlomo, is a lawyer.

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.

Establishment of Shas and Interior Minister role

In 1984, he began to serve as a secretary to Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah of Shas. 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. Immediately after he finished his time at the army, Deri was appointed as the CEO of the Interior Ministry, while he was only 27 years old. After the Elections for the 12th Knesset, he was appointed to the Interior Minister role in the government of Yitzhak Shamir, because of the refusal of Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz to receive this role. Deri was sworn in as the Interior Minister on December 22, 1988, and became the youngest minister in Israel history. He was only 29 years old.

After his appointment to Interior Minister role, Deri received a lot of attention from the Israeli media. He abolished the censorship of plays in theaters, a popular act among the public in Israel.

The grand coalition suffered from instability, and the Labor Party tried to break up from the coalition and create a narrow coalition. Deri was part of those efforts. His friendship with Haim Ramon, a young and leading Knesset member from the Labor Party, brought negotiations between the sides, and at the end both parties agreed to overthrow the government and to create a government of Labor-Haredi instead. This agreement became practical with a motion of no confidence on March 15, 1990. This act overthrown the grand coalition, but 5 Knesset members on behalf of Shas party were absent from the vote. This agreement nicknamed "The dirty trick". Two strong rabbis, Menachem Mendel Schneerson and Elazar Shach, strongly opposed to co-operate with the political left, caused the deal to fail, and the Labor Party chairman, Shimon Peres, didn't succeed to create 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, 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 Interior Minister, and was given a three-year jail sentence in 2000. He was replaced by Eli Yishai. Due to good behavior, Deri was released from Maasiyahu Prison in 2002 after serving 22 months.

Return to public life

In June 2011, he announced that he was planning to return to politics. 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, with his seat taken by Lior Edri.

Despite his resignation from the Knesset, Deri headed the Shas list for the March 2015 elections, and was subsequently appointed Minister of the Economy and Minister of 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. 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.

Personal life

Deri is married, and has nine children. He lives in Jerusalem.