JERUSALEM - Israel’s Supreme Court ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to remove a senior minister over a past criminal conviction, in a setback for the new right-wing coalition government.

The 10-to-one ruling on Shas party leader Aryeh Deri looks likely to further stoke tensions between the Cabinet and Israel’s Supreme Court over government reform plans which aim to rein in the top court.

“Most of the judges have determined that this appointment is extremely unreasonable and thus the prime minister must remove him from office,” said a court summary of the ruling.

There was no immediate response from Mr Netanyahu, who returned to office in December at the head of a hard-right government. Mr Deri’s Shas Party condemned the ruling.

Mr Deri, who holds the interior and health portfolios and is due to become finance minister under a rotation deal, confessed to tax fraud last year in a plea deal that spared him jail time.

He also served jail time beginning in 2000 following a bribery, fraud, and breach of trust conviction. 

Political watchdogs had appealed to the Supreme Court to order Mr Netanyahu to strike down the appointment, deeming it unreasonable.

The government’s reform plans would increase government control over judicial appointments while limiting the Supreme Court’s power to strike down legislation or rule against government actions.

They also include the removal of “reasonableness” as a court standard of review.

Members of Shas, including Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Social Services Yakov Margi, indicated prior to the decision that the party will pull out of the coalition if Mr Deri is not in the cabinet, leaving Mr Netanyahu without a ruling majority. 

Ofir Katz, head of Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party faction in parliament, said prior to the ruling that whatever needs to be done to ensure that Mr Deri is able to serve in the cabinet will be done. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG