Shas chairman Aryeh Deri on Thursday called for unity and called on those who left the party to return – including Eli Yishai, who recently broke off from Shas to form his own party.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Ashdod, Deri said, “I call from here on all those who have left – we have one home, Maran (Rabbi Ovadia Yosef of blessed memory) had one home. Shas is the home of Maran and there is no other. Think about it again, let’s join hands and march together from the same house.
“Let’s fulfill Maran’s will, his Torah schools, helping the poor, there is enough for everyone to do,” he added.
Deri announced his return as chairperson of Shas on Monday, just two weeks after stepping down following damaging recordings that showed that Rabbi Yosef strongly opposed him.
Deri’s return came a day after the head of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages, Rabbi Shalom Cohen, sent Deri a letter in which he instructed Deri to return to the leadership of Shas.
Yishai left Shas and formed his own party, Ha’am Itanu, after years of tensions with Deri.
During Thursday’s rally, Deri also vowed to work and help the lower class in Israel, to whom he referred as “the transparent Israelis”.
“Israel has an upper class, we do not have to worry about them. And the middle class, everyone takes care of them. But, there are some transparent Israelis, two million people below the poverty line, 900,000 of them hungry children,” he said.
“Who takes care of them? Who cares about them? No one sees these transparent people. They are ignored. My transparent brothers – the revolution is back, we’ll take care of the transparent people, poverty has no color and poverty doesn’t wear a kippah,” declared Deri.
The Shas chairman also rejected recent claims that Shas had turned to the left, particularly after Deri himself said this week that Shas did not have a “sacred covenant” with the Likud.
“Today, there is no partner for peace. Up to now, those who gave back communities and parts of the land of Israel were mostly right-wing governments, so please do not preach morality to us. We must focus solely on reducing the cost of living and on eradicating poverty,” Deri said.
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