Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Israel's attorney general has called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately remove one of his most senior cabinet ministers a day after the Israeli Supreme Court ruled he was no longer fit to hold office following his recent conviction for tax fraud.
A letter, released Thursday by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, urged Netanyahu to fire Interior and Health Minister Aryeh Deri, after the high court decision to oust one of Netanyahu's closest allies.
"MK Deri cannot continue to serve as a minister in the Government of Israel," Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara wrote to Netanyahu, while noting "you must act in line with the legal ruling and remove [Deri] from his roles in the government."
Deri, who also leads the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, received a suspended prison sentence but has continued to serve as head of two cabinet departments in Netanyahu's right-wing coalition, which was sworn in less than a month ago.
There was no immediate indication of whether Netanyahu will respect the ruling and fire Deri, or defy the court and keep him in office, setting up a potential standoff between the administration and the judiciary.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu did meet with Deri at his home in Jerusalem for nearly an hour, and after their sit-down declared: "When my brother is in distress, I come to him."
Deri also issued a statement on Wednesday, vowing to "continue the revolution our predecessors began, with even greater devotion and energy."
"When they close the door on us, we'll get in through the window. When they close the window we'll break through the ceiling, with God's help," he said.
Previously, Netanyahu's office issued a statement of support for Deri, touting his "extraordinary abilities and vast experience."
"We will act in any legal way that is available to us and without delay to correct the injustice and the severe damage caused to the democratic decision," the statement said.
Netanyahu's coalition did not explicitly say whether Deri will be deposed or keep his job, although there was some speculation that the minister might walk away on his own to avoid a bigger crisis.
"If Prime Minister Netanyahu disobeys the court order and does not terminate Deri's term in government -- though I can hardly imagine such a scenario -- then we are in a constitutional crisis of a sort we have never encountered before," said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan research center in Jerusalem, according to The New York Times.
Netanyahu, who is legally prevented from assuming Deri's role himself because he's facing corruption charges, is also locked in a tense power struggle with the judiciary over a handful of controversial proposals, including one that would strip the high court of its sovereignty and allow politicians to leverage more authority to appoint judges.
And the situation involving Deri now threatens to widen the political discord.
The government standoff has sparked massive street protests in recent days, while some prominent voices inside the country have expressed concerns about the government becoming destabilized due to the ongoing internal conflict.
Under Netanyahu's plan, the Supreme Court would lose its ability to overturn laws passed by the Israeli parliament and allow for high court decisions to be overturned by a simple majority in the national assembly.
The administration has also called for government lawyers to be classified as political appointees, which would strip the attorney general's authority for oversight.
Meanwhile, some lawmakers in the country have urged Netanyahu to flout the court's decision, claiming the panel of 11 justices lacked the legal authority to oust Deri.
"The High Court has no right to demand that it be obeyed -- it's a dictatorship like Putin," said Israeli politician Yisrael Eichler. "I call on my partners in the government not to comply with the High Court's ruling as it is an illegal decision."
