Controversy
Since 1999, several of Shas's MKs, including Aryeh Deri, Rafael Pinhasi, Yair Levy, Ofer Hugi, and Yair Peretz have been convicted of offences including fraud and forgery. In addition, elected MK Shlomo Benizri was convicted of bribery, conspiring to commit a crime and obstruction of justice on 1 April 2008. Benizri subsequently resigned and Mazor Bahaina, number thirteen on the Shas list, replaced him.
The party was mired in scandal after the indictment and subsequent conviction and imprisonment of its former party leader, Aryeh Deri, on corruption charges in 1999. While Yosef distanced the party from Deri and installed Yishai as the new party head, many Shas voters saw Deri as the victim of a discriminatory political witch-hunt and continue to support him.
In 2010, as United States President Obama called for talks between Netanyahu and Abbas, Ovadia Yosef called Palestinians "evil, bitter enemies of Israel" and said "Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this world. God should strike them with a plague, them and these Palestinians." Saeb Erekat of the PLO said Yosef's remarks were tantamount to a call for "genocide against Palestinians." Yosef later apologized for his statements, and wrote to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, "I support your efforts and praise all the leaders and the peoples – Egyptians, Jordanians and Palestinians – who are partners and wish the success of this important process of achieving peace in our region, and preventing bloodshed. May God grant you longevity and may you succeed in your efforts for peace and may there be peace in our region." Previously Yosef had called Arabs "vipers," and called for Israel to "annihilate" them. "It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable." A spokesman later argued that his comments were only aimed at murderers and terrorists, and not the entire Arab world.
Shas opposes any form of public expression of homosexuality, including Gay Pride parades, especially in Jerusalem. Shas MK Nissim Ze'ev accused the homosexual community of "carrying out the self-destruction of Israeli society and the Jewish people", calling homosexuals "a plague as toxic as bird flu". However, it officially condemns any form of violence against gays and lesbians.
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Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
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