JERUSALEM — The head of the Sephardi Orthodox Shas party has officially resigned from the Knesset.
Aryeh Deri’s departure on Dec. 30 comes after he attempted to resign on Dec. 29. The Shas party’s council of rabbis rejected Deri’s initial resignation and ordered that he continue in his post as chairman. The Jerusalem Post reported that Deri will not consider the rabbis’ request.
“My rabbis, don’t make this harder on me,” Deri wrote in his resignation letter. “Understand me. I can no longer live with the feeling that because of me there are disputes and fighting.”
Since the Knesset is dissolved, Deri’s resignation, which takes effect on the evening of Dec. 31, will have no immediate consequences. In his letter, Deri recommended that party member Ariel Atias take his position.
Deri’s resignation comes two days after a 2008 video was released showing the Shas party’s late spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef calling Deri a thief and praising his rival, former party rival Eli Yishai. Deri was convicted of graft in 1999 and was absent from politics until 2012.
Yishai, who headed the party for years, broke away from Shas earlier this month to start his own party, Ha’am Itanu.
In the video, which was filmed in 2008 and believed to be leaked by Yishai, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said he was concerned about the possibility of Deri, who served in prison for two years, returning to party leadership.
“Thirty, 40 per cent will leave [Shas]. Why? Because he was convicted in court. Why take a thief or bribe taker?” the rabbi asked rhetorically in the video.
Yosef, who died in 2013, appointed Deri as sole party chairman that year.