JERUSALEM – The new right-wing Israeli government and the country’s judiciary were locked in a stand-off on Thursday, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed upholding a Supreme Court ruling that called for the dismissal of a key government minister.

Mr Netanyahu took no apparent action on Thursday to remove Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, a day after the country’s highest court ruled that the minister should be fired, principally because he had recently been convicted of tax fraud and received a suspended prison sentence.

If Mr Deri does not resign in the coming days or Mr Netanyahu does not fire him, the legal dispute will compound a wider clash between the government and the judiciary that analysts consider one of the most profound in Israeli history.

Mr Netanyahu faces an almost existential dilemma: Legal experts say there is no direct precedent for an Israeli leader failing to heed the ruling of the Supreme Court and will constitute a broadside against the rule of law, but removing a top official from his coalition could bring the government crashing down.

Coalition leaders spent Thursday locked in tense private discussions about how to respond, amid speculation in the Israeli news media that Mr Netanyahu will ultimately acquiesce to the court’s decision, to avoid exacerbating an already febrile mood in the country.

Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara advised Mr Netanyahu that he has no other legal option, according to a letter published by Kan, Israel’s national broadcaster.

The stand-off with the judiciary comes just days after Mr Netanyahu’s government set out plans to significantly reduce the Supreme Court’s power over politicians and increase political influence over the selection of the court’s judges.

The proposed overhaul prompted large protests across Israel in recent days, amid furious disagreement within Israeli society about whether politicians or the judiciary should hold primacy in a liberal democracy.

Opposition leaders and several former prime ministers have warned that the judicial overhaul will damage the democratic process, while the government and its supporters argue it will strengthen it – by giving greater power to parties representing a majority of voters.

These tensions are set against the backdrop of Mr Netanyahu’s own corruption trial, which his allies portray as a case of overreach by an unelected judiciary against an elected political leader, but which his critics cite as an example of the need for strong judicial independence from the political executive.

Mr Deri’s predicament also threatens to resurface longstanding grievances from Jewish Israelis of Middle Eastern and North African origin, or Mizrahim, who form Mr Deri’s political base.

After Israel’s founding, Mizrahi Israelis suffered discrimination from Israelis of European descent, or Ashkenazim, a group that dominated Israeli society for decades and still form a majority on the Supreme Court.

It was not clear on Thursday whether Mr Netanyahu will ignore the court’s decision, setting off a constitutional crisis, or find a way of upholding it without collapsing his government.

The leaders of Mr Netanyahu’s coalition issued an ambiguous statement, promising to “correct the injustice” of the ruling but leaving open the possibility that Mr Deri might still resign.

The disagreement stems from Mr Deri’s decision to re-enter front-line politics in a general election in November 2022.

Mr Deri is a political veteran, first serving in the Cabinet in the 1980s. But he had promised a court in 2021 that he would retire from political life in exchange for sparing him from jail time for tax fraud.

In the election, Mr Deri’s party, Shas, a group popular with working-class ultra-Orthodox Mizrahi Jews, won 11 seats. Shas became the second-largest party in Mr Netanyahu’s victorious right-wing coalition, giving it the balance of power in Parliament.

To secure Mr Deri’s support, Mr Netanyahu appointed him to lead two powerful ministries – health and interior. In doing so, he set up the clash with the Supreme Court, which was forced to rule on Mr Deri’s suitability for office.

Though members of Shas threatened this week to bring down the coalition if Mr Deri was forced to leave office, they scaled back that rhetoric after the court announcement.

Asked for comment on the party’s intentions, a spokesman for Shas sent a statement underscoring its support for Mr Deri and his continued leadership but avoiding any mention of his ministerial future. NYTIMES