Israel's Supreme Court blocks appointment of key Netanyahu ally

Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that a key coalition partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot serve as a minister because of a recent conviction for tax fraud and suspended sentence.

Judges said the appointment of Aryeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, was "extremely unreasonable".

The justice minister called the ruling "absurd". Shas said it was "political".

The decision aggravates an already unprecedented clash between the new government and the entire legal system.

The government - the most right-wing in Israel's history - has drawn up a bill which, if written into law, would allow politicians to override rulings by the Supreme Court and increase their influence over the selection of judges.

Tens of thousands of people protested on Saturday in Tel Aviv against the proposed changes, after the Supreme Court's president warned that they would deal a "fatal blow" to Israel's democratic character.

Mr Netanyahu - who is currently on trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, which he denies - rejected the criticism.

Before the government took office last month, members of parliament from his coalition changed a law to allow someone recently convicted of a crime to serve as a minister if their prison sentence was suspended.

Mr Netanyahu and his allies believed that would allow Mr Deri to be serve as interior minister and health minister, but 10 of the Supreme Court's 11 justices ruled in favour of legal petitions challenging his appointment.

"Most of the judges have determined that this appointment is extremely unreasonable and thus the prime minister must remove Deri from office," a summary of their ruling said.

She added that having him in charge of two important ministries "damages the image and reputation of the country's legal system and contradicts principles of ethical conduct and legality".

In 1999, Mr Deri was sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of taking bribes, fraud and breach of trust while serving as interior minister. He was released after 22 months and returned to parliament in 2013.

Last January, a court agreed to a plea deal in which Mr Deri admitted to tax fraud. He was given a one-year suspended prison sentence and fined $53,300 (£43,200).

He also resigned as an MP, which meant the court did not decide whether his offence involved "moral turpitude" - a finding that would have barred him from running for office for seven years.

Mr Deri was re-elected in November, when Shas won 11 seats in parliament and agreed to go into coalition with Mr Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, as well the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party and the far-right Religious Zionism alliance.

Shas condemned the Supreme Court ruling as "political", "extremely unreasonable" and "unprecedented", and warned that it "tossed away the voice and vote of 400,000 Shas voters". The party earlier suggested the government could not sit without their leader in it.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a member of Likud, said the ruling was a "blatant injustice" and that he was saddened the court had "failed to respect the people's will, the prime minister's judgement, and the Knesset's decision that expressed confidence in the current government".

A joint statement from the leaders of the parties in the coalition promised to act "in any legal way available to us and without delay, to correct the injustice and the harm that has been caused to the democratic decision and the sovereignty of the people".

The leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, warned them that the government would be breaking the law and risking an "unprecedented constitutional crisis" if Mr Deri was not fired.

"A government that does not heed the law is an illegal government. It no longer can demand citizens to abide by the law," the head of the centrist Yesh Atid party and former prime minister said.