Shas chairman MK Aryeh Deri is reportedly giving up on returning to the government after the Supreme Court ruled he could not serve as a minister given his criminal history, and will allow other Shas members to take his places as Health and Interior Minister.
The Knesset will convene in two weeks to approve a permanent appointment of the next Health and Interior Ministries, which indicates that Deri has decided to give up the “Deri 2” law that was supposed to return him to the government by prohibiting the Supreme Court from interfering in ministerial appointments.
Deri has already dropped his demand for the passage of the “Deri 2” law following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to freeze the government’s judicial reform legislation to allow for negotiations on the judicial reforms.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Deri from his roles as Interior and Health Minister in late January, in a move which was necessitated by the Supreme Court”s ruling that the Shas chairman may not serve as a minister in the current government following his conviction for tax offenses one year ago.
The Supreme Court argued that, in Deri”s plea bargain, the he promised the Magistrate’s Court that sentenced him that he would retire from political life. Therefore, his appointment as a minister in the current government could not stand.
However, former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, whose office negotiated the agreement with Deri, told Channel 12 News that the plea bargain did not include any reference to Deri being in politics.
The “Deri 2” law passed its first reading in the Knesset on March 20, but has not been advanced for its second and third readings to become law.