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In a Divided Israel, Thousands Rally for the Ex-Shas Party Leader as He Goes to Jail [1]
['Deborah Sontag']
Date: 2000-09-04
It was quite a send-off for a felonious politician.
Alongside a drab prison, on a huge stage erected for a going-away party, the rabbis took their seats. In the crowd below, acolytes of Aryeh Deri, the former leader of the Orthodox Shas Party, danced rhapsodically as a religious rock group warmed up with a few electric bars of last year's hit song, ''He's Innocent.'' Thousands chanted ''Police state!'' under the impassive surveillance of blue-uniformed Israeli police officers.
And that was just the beginning of a three-hour rally that culminated in Mr. Deri's solemn march from dais to prison. Accompanied by a phalanx of officers, he clung to the rabbis' parting gift, a velvet-covered Torah scroll to keep him company during his three-year sentence for corruption. While the clanging prison door seemed to seal his downfall, the crowd saw him elevated instead, from charismatic politician to ''tzaddik,'' or righteous man.
''Aryeh Deri is a symbol for all of us who were born in Morocco and Iran and Iraq and Egypt,'' said Ayala Yosef, 37, a mother of five. ''Today represents the apex of the persecution they inflicted on him throughout his political career for standing up for us. But it will backfire. Shas will only grow because they put him in jail.''
That is far from certain. Weakened by the loss of Mr. Deri's charismatic leadership, by the taint of his conviction and by internal conflicts, Shas has had a rocky year under its new leader, Eli Yishai.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/04/world/divided-israel-thousands-rally-for-ex-shas-party-leader-he-goes-jail.html
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