Key Netanyahu ally cannot serve as cabinet minister, Israel's top court rules, sparking potential political crisis | CNN
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Jerusalem CNN — Israel’s top court ruled 10-1 on Wednesday that Aryeh Deri, leader of the Shas party and a key ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, should not be allowed to serve as a cabinet minister because of a February 2022 conviction for tax fraud. Netanyahu should remove Deri from his post, the court ruling said. Such a move would risk plunging the country into a political crisis. Deri’s Shas party – which won 11 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, the Knesset, in November and is a key component of Netanyahu’s coalition – immediately hit back, calling the court decision “arbitrary and unprecedented.” The Sephardi religious party said the court “today threw away the voices and votes of 400,000 voters of the Shas movement.” “Today the court actually ruled that the elections are meaningless. T