A sense of déjà vu prevails at 28 Kabalan Street in Jerusalem. The morning after the High Court ruling, the flow of pilgrims does not stop. Politicians, rabbis, Shas people past and present. Come to show support, and remember. 20 years have passed since the days of "Lion's Roar", the yeshiva that was established outside the prison where Deri was, and the children of the revolution feel that it is starting anew. Some were children when he was sent to prison, others were old enough to participate in the protests. The feeling that someone is looking to harm their symbol - and themselves - still burns.
Shlomo Sebag, 28, an Avrach studying special education, grew up in a "typical snicky house in Bnei Brak. A large picture of Rabbi Ovadia hangs on the wall, next to a picture of Baba Sali. In the huge sacred library in the living room, all the books of "Yivya Omer" and "Yhava Da'at" As someone who breathed the spirit of Shas from his childhood, Sebag held his breath ahead of the High Court's ruling on Wednesday.
Shlomo Sebag, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Shlomo Sebag: "I remember myself as a small child during Deri's exciting trial, watching loops with the whole family on the tape 'I am accusing.'
"I remember myself as a small child on a family vacation in Safed, during the days of Deri's exciting trial, watching loops together with the whole family on the tape 'I blame.' The tears of his little daughter.
Aryeh Deri has been engraved in my memory since childhood as a strong personality.
I adored him.
I hurt for him.
Even when Eli Yishai replaced him, I remember that in the Torah Talmud and in the house they always said that no matter what you do, there is only one lion."
You've grown up since then.
"As someone who also attended Lithuanian yeshiva, I didn't always feel comfortable saying that I was a Shas voter.
We didn't always have this unit pride.
But since Rabbi Aryeh Deri returned to lead the movement, the phenomenon in which Sephardi yeshiva boys are not ashamed to proudly say that they voted for Shas has only intensified. In the last elections in particular, I have seen people who even put Shas signs on their vehicles.
How did you feel just before the announcement of the decision at the High Court?
"I had a gut feeling that it was almost certainly headed for disqualification, and I was still in tension, as if I was about to receive a fateful answer in my life.
I was really hurt personally by the disrespect.
Who are the judges who would disrespect 11 mandates that voted for Shas, the vast majority of them because of the man named Aryeh Deri? They simply did an act that stems from pure hatred and persecution."
like years ago
This feeling of pain also comes up in a conversation with Hani Bohbot, 55, director of the Tilatan College of Complementary Medicine, the widow of the Chief Rabbi of Tiberias Rabbi Moshe Zvi Bohbot zt'l, and a figure who is very connected to the party.
"On this day I want to say and speak my pain out loud.
I love our people.
I like him united and cohesive, because unity is our second name as a people surrounded by so many challenges.
Our strength is in our inner unity, and I feel pain, and even a little angry, for those who talk about equality and rights and love and inclusion, when on the way there they step on and trample exactly that.
In the name of the holy and dear to them, they close their eyes to those who do not resemble them.
As Shas voters, we chose the leader because of the path he paved for us."
Hani Bohbot, photo: Yossi Zeliger
Hani Bohbot: "I feel pain, and even a little angry, for those who talk about equality and rights and love and inclusion, when on the way there they step on and trample exactly that. In the holy and dearest name to them, they close their eyes to those who are not like them."
Do you recognize a thread connecting to '99?
"Just like years ago, which led us to an unnecessary fratricidal war, it is the same now. Nothing has changed. The popularity of Aryeh, who has reached the top of the political pyramid, is a tool for deliberately harming us, his voters."
Shmuel Ben Atar, 58, is a presenter on "Kol Barama" radio, on "Kol Amma" radio on the internet and on Jewish radio in New York, and in the past was the owner of the most popular radio station among the ultra-Orthodox community, "Kol Amma" a pirate station that played a crucial part in the Sephardi-Mizrath protest.
He was one of the founders of "Shagat Aryeh", a protest tent to which hundreds and thousands of his listeners flocked while Deri was in prison.
He describes himself as someone who was also harmed by the court's intervention in the laws of the Knesset, when he broadcast to hundreds of thousands the spontaneous protest he set up to strengthen Arie Deri.
Shmuel Ben Atar, photo: Naama Stern
Shmuel Ben Atar: "Uri Zohar came on my broadcast and said, 'I'm not leaving him, I'm staying here.'
"The Knesset passed a law that anyone who broadcasts for at least seven consecutive years in a pirated manner will become legal. Aryeh Deri came on our station, and announced that I can legally broadcast and give the station's number to the people of Israel. But the legal advisor, Meni Mazuz, overturned the Knesset's decision, because he decided that it was not a law legal. We filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, and he accepted the position of the ombudsman."
Why was the law repealed?
"Because we think differently from them. They were used to presenting things to the people as they think, they navigated, they controlled the narrative, and suddenly you hear other opinions from other people, and they worked to bring us down. How does a court invalidate a law of the Knesset, of a government?"
Go back with us to the days of the protest, how did it come about?
"I founded 'Shagat Aryeh'. Uri Zohar went on the air at my place after Aryeh Deri went to prison, and said 'I'm not leaving him, I'm staying here.' In the evening, more than a thousand people would come. We would broadcast live. Every evening a singer would perform, there would be a stage, rabbis would come up and speak. The goal was to strengthen Aryeh, who listened to us from prison. I do not rule out that the 'Lion's Roar' protest will return. I have been accepting since the ruling Dozens of requests from people from all over the country to return and set up the protest tent. People really want to shout about the injustice. We will consult with rabbis and make a decision."
But it is the right that is in power now.
"We need to learn from the previous government how they made a revolution within a year. The right must learn to govern. It's not just Deri with 400,000 voters. All the voters of the right-wing bloc cast their votes, knowing that Deri was going to be appointed minister. Why didn't they submit the petition before the elections? Maybe because who were waiting to see if he would join the left. If he had joined Lapid, he would have been spared from it. Lapid said in his honor and by himself that he does not rule out Deri being a minister in his government. The court should think very carefully about why a huge public does not trust the judicial system. It is time to let those who were elected run the the state and they will not interfere with them."
Demonstration of support for Aryeh Deri in front of Maasiyahu prison on the day he entered prison, September 2000, photo: Moshe Milner, L.A.M.
Rabbi Yehuda Ezard, 50, director of the Carmi Ha'ir specialty house in Jerusalem, was among the founders of the "Shagat Aryeh" yeshiva and one of the leaders of the struggle for Deri in the 1990s, and he too feels that this is the same struggle.
"More than 25 years have passed. Then we were young and cried out in a shrill voice, 'I am accusing,' 'He is entitled,' 'This is persecution.'
At such a time you have reached the kingdom
"The same court, the same judges - and nothing has changed," continues Rabbi Ezard.
"They are the masters of the land, they decide what is right, what to think. After such a decision, the feeling is that the Knesset can be closed. We live in a dictatorship. At a time like this, Binyamin Netanyahu and Rabbi Aryeh Deri, have you reached the kingdom? So don't call us to vote for you anymore. The people said the Speak up. Two million people elected you precisely to make a change. Stop saying 'the honor of the court', stop quibbling over legal concepts as if this is the debate. The persecution will continue as long as they are the real government."
Yaakov Matan, 37, Beit Shemesh, entrepreneur and creator, son of an eastern family.
Matan was also there in his youth outside the walls in the "Lion's Roar" tent, and absorbed the feeling of frustration.
But today, more than 20 years later, he presents a more complex position.
Jacob Matan,
Yaakov Matan: "I love Aryeh Deri, and sympathize with all my heart for his grief. But at the same time, I am a great believer in the words of our ancestors, that if it were not for the fear of royalty - one man would devour another. There are judges in Jerusalem and we should be thankful for that every day."
"All my days I grew up among the Lithuanians, and the house where I was brought up was not a "sneaky" house either.
And yet I vote Shas. My connection to Shas started at a relatively late age, when my father approached me and said 'Grandpa wants us to vote Shas.' And yet, a very dramatic part of my adolescence holds the great event of 'I blame'. The song 'He is right' and the tears of the crying girl go with me to this day, and leave a scar of insult from some powerful person who holds infinite power and abuses it. To our detriment. I remember myself standing there with my friends for a sit-in outside the walls as his actions, and especially realizing that here is a moment that Greater than any word or explanation. A moment when the establishment seeks to return the crown to its former glory."
And today?
"I've grown up. Nothing will succeed in turning Aryeh Deri into a leper in my eyes. But on the other hand, the court convicted the man of crimes. And Dina Damalkuta Dina. In the previous elections, I was very hesitant. Shas' transparent campaign found me in a very reluctant and frightened position.
I am not transparent.
Absolutely not.
I am also not ready for my brothers of the Mizrahi ethnic group to be called that.
And on the other hand, I saw members of the Knesset from the newer generation within Shas, the one who speaks of complexity, who shows vigilance to the processes going through ultra-Orthodox Judaism, and who act out of all-Israeli responsibility. As an example, I will mention MKs Michael Malchiali and Moshe Arbel.
For the first time, my choice in Shas was more informed.
"I love Aryeh Deri, and sympathize with all my heart for his grief and the unpleasant situation. But at the same time, I strongly believe in the words of our ancestors, that if it weren't for the fear of royalty - one man would devour another. There are judges in Jerusalem and we should be thankful for that every day."
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