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Spiritual leader of Israel’s Shas party reportedly urges students not to vote for it
There are longstanding tensions between the secular and spiritual leaders of the political party, which aims to represent Orthodox Jews of Sephardi origin
One of Israel’s most prominent religious parties is reportedly experiencing significant tension between its political and spiritual leaders, with reports that the latter has urged people to find alternatives to vote for.
Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, former Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, reportedly told his students not to vote for Shas, the party which primarily represents Orthodox Jews of Sephardic origin. Yosef’s father, former Chief Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, was one of the founders of Shas and is still considered the primary spiritual influence behind the political movement, with his face regularly adorning the party’s election adverts.
Both Yosef’s office and Shas strongly denied the report, which first appeared in Ha’aretz. However, a senior member of the party told the Israeli paper: “The moment this is published [Yosef] will of course deny it, but in conversations at home he says it clearly.”
Shas, whose political leader is Aryeh Deri, currently holds 11 out of the 120 Knesset seats – a significant number in a system defined by eked-out coalitions. Its support has enabled current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a number of his governments.
According to the Haaretz report, however, Yosef has been discouraged by what he sees as the Right’s failure to enshrine in law official military exemptions for Orthodox students, and believes that the Israeli Left might be open to cutting a deal in return for support from Shas. Such hopes seem far-fetched, given that key opposition politicians, including former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, are vehemently opposed to any such exemptions, identifying Deri as one of the key politicians who has prevented legislation requiring Charedi youth to serve in the country’s military.
There have been longstanding tensions between Deri, who has been involved with Shas since its inception, and the Yosef family. Deri became the youngest Minister in Israel’s history at the age of 29; however, a decade later, he was convicted of bribery, fraud and breach of trust and served 22 months in prison. Once released, he moved slowly to reassert control over the party, ultimately outmanoeuvring the man who had taken over from him while he was in jail, Eli Yishai. In 2014, a recording made six years earlier showed Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef discussing the potential return of Deri to the top job, in which he said that “they judged him in court – why take someone who is a thief? Why would you take someone who accepts bribes?” Despite this, in 2012 the former Sephardi Chief Rabbi gave his backing to Deri to supplant Yishai.
In 2017, footage was leaked of Deri preparing for a 2015 election campaign video in which he was to be filmed mourning Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, who had died two years previously. Deri was seen rubbing onion into his eyes in order to bring on tears, and was then subsequently filmed ‘crying’ over the passing of the spiritual leader. At the time Deri’s campaign manager claimed that the Shas party leader had previously cried real tears during the filming but that the initial footage had not been deemed acceptable, and so onion was employed because “we needed to bring him back to that state of mind.”
Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef has also been involved in a number of controversies since he succeeded his father as spiritual leader of the Shas party, including making highly offensive remarks about black people, women who dress in a way he regarded as immodest, and secular Jews.
The latest polling by Israel’s Kan broadcaster ahead of October’s election suggests that the current Netanyahu coalition bloc would win 53 seats, the Jewish Israeli parties in opposition would win 56, and Israeli Arab parties would win the remaining 11 seats.
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