Can an ex-convict be Jerusalem's mayor?
Aryeh Deri, jailed for bribery in 2000, tries for a comeback in the Jerusalem mayoral contest as Israel reels from several high-profile political scandals.
from the September 11, 2008 edition
Page 3 of 3
"We're surprised this is even coming up, and we oppose the legal steps it would take to allow him to run," says Michael Partem, vice chairman of the movement.
Similar to the United States, Israel also shows a tendency toward a "permanent political class" that should be reined in, says Mr. Partem.
"Politicians tend to get involved and stay there for life," he says, "In Israel we tend to recycle people. Politics is in their blood and it becomes their profession."
He says that the seven-year limit was not nearly enough.
"To limit someone to seven years after committing serious public crimes is abhorrent to us," Partem says. "Even if he's truly sorry for his crimes, he's free to live his life as he sees fit, but it doesn't make sense that we put someone like that in charge of the public purse."
At the time of his conviction, Deri maintained his innocence and supporters rushed to his defense, painting him as a victim of the Ashkenazi, or European, establishment. Similarly, analysts here say that if Deri isn't allowed to run, he may use the issue to say that he is continuing to be discriminated against because of his ethnic background. Born in Morocco, he is championed as an underdog by many Jews of Sephardic, or Middle Eastern, descent.
But the race to run the holy city is still more complicated. Deri's success in the past came in part because when he was a rising political wunderkind in the early 1990s, his Shas Party maintained a moderate platform on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in contrast to most other Orthodox parties. Deri was in the government of Yitzhak Rabin, who reached a historic peace deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization 15 years ago this Saturday.
As such, some secular and liberal voters could support Deri, while right-wingers and nationalists who fear Jerusalem will be divided into two capitals – one Israel and one Palestinian – have already begun to portray him as a "leftist in a kippah" (head covering) for having supported the 1993 Oslo Accords.
"He has the Sephardi vote, and he also knows to talk to the secular people: that's his strength," says Shmuel Sandler, an expert on Israeli politics at Bar-Ilan University, near Tel Aviv. "But I think the Israeli public is sick and tired of corruption and he has to remember that."
Deri, alongside Olmert, is one of many politicians who is trying to portray his legal battles as a sign of a slanted judicial and law enforcement system that is "out to get" certain key officials. The phenomenon, says Partem, shows a trend of "people who are out to intimidate the legal forces – including the courts and the police – for doing their job."
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