MK Aryeh Deri
MK Aryeh DeriFlash 90

In a debate on the state budget Monday, Shas leader Aryeh Deri said that he was considering suing the government of Israel – in the World Court, for fostering poverty and suffering among poor Israelis. The Court, he said, was designed to hear appeals on civil rights and human rights violations, and with its latest budget, Deri said, “you are denying people human rights in the worst possible way.”

Deri, speaking in the Knesset before a vote on a vote of no-confidence filed by six opposition parties, said that he was begging MKs to “have a little pity on the poor. Daily we see new edicts that are destroying families. Altogether the government is spending NIS 7.2 billion on child allowances, and now they want to reduce that to NIS 4 billion.”

But slashing the money needed by large families to survive was no big deal for this government. “The child allowances are for hareidi and Arab families with many children, so who cares if that gets cut? They aren't part of the 'Israeli consensus' anyway. Do you think hareidi Jewish and Arab families do not have to feed their children? You wait and see, we will take this to the International Criminal Court in the Hague,” Deri said.

Responding on behalf of the government, Deputy Finance Minister Miki Levy (Yesh Atid) said that he was “thrilled to have observed the theatrics here – as if there were never budget cuts in the past, and Yesh Atid is the first party to decide on cuts. Unfortunately, together with the artery blocking fat that we inherited, we also have to deal with daily issues of keeping the economy healthy, for the long-term, the things you in the opposition refused to do when you were in the government,” he said.