Aryeh Deri, 2026 positions · Shas

#1 on the Shas list

Has not named a portfolio for the next government. He said in February 2026 that the High Court's suspension period has lapsed and he no longer needs a law to return to the cabinet.

Who they are

Aryeh Deri is one of the founders of Shas, has led the party since 2013 and was the youngest cabinet minister in Israel’s history. He was born in Meknes, Morocco, in 1959 to Eliyahu and Esther Azougi, a traditional family living on his father’s tailoring business, and came to Israel at nine, to Bat Yam. Haredi activists persuaded his parents to send him to a boarding yeshiva in Hadera, and he went on to Porat Yosef in Jerusalem and then the Hebron yeshiva.

His public life began as secretary of the Haredi village of Ma’ale Amos and a member of the Gush Etzion regional council, and from 1983 he ran the Lev Banim yeshiva’s administration. He was secretary of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages and then its secretary-general, was made director-general of the interior ministry at twenty-seven and took the ministry itself at twenty-nine. He has since held it a second time and been economy minister.

Deri was indicted in 1993 and convicted in 1999 of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, serving twenty-two months in Ma’asiyahu prison. He has never accepted the verdict. He pleaded guilty to tax offences in January 2022, resigned his Knesset seat under the plea agreement and was fined 180,000 shekels. When he was appointed a minister again in December 2022 the High Court voided the appointment, and he was dismissed the following month.

Positions and record

Torah world: Non-negotiable funding for yeshivot.

Welfare: Food security and housing for the poor.

Judiciary: A personal collision with the High Court over his eligibility.

Where they stand

Holds the party line on every issue.

Judea & Samariaparty lineIt follows the Knesset and the government on Judea and Samaria rather than setting a line of its own, and opposes any division of Jerusalem.

Two states / withdrawalSovereignty / annexation

Gaza & Securityparty lineIt backed the hostage agreement, holding that no commandment matters more than saving the lives of hostages.

Deal & disengagementFull military control

Haredi Enlistmentparty lineTorah study is service. A law settling the status of yeshiva students is its one condition for joining a government, and it left the government in 2025 when none came.

Universal draftPreserve exemptions

Judiciaryparty lineIt does not recognise the Supreme Court's authority over the party, and would bar the court from reviewing the appointment of ministers.

Court can strike lawsKnesset can override

Economyparty lineAgainst globalisation and the privatisation of welfare: the minimum wage raised by a quarter, manpower agencies abolished, and old-age pensions at a third of the average wage.

Social spendingFree market

Educationparty lineIt fights to keep its own network independent, refusing outside control of what it teaches and what it is paid, and Deri calls the struggle a holy war.

State runs the schoolsParents and communities

Religion & Stateparty lineThe religious status quo and a stronger rabbinate, with kashrut returned to the Chief Rabbinate, while the state also supplies other faiths their religious needs.

Civil / pluralistReligious authority

Nation & Citizenshipparty lineA Jewish state and the ingathering of the exiles, and it asked in coalition talks for the grandchild clause of the Law of Return to be abolished.

Equal citizenshipJewish national state

#2 on the slip →Yinon Azoulay