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Shas - A Mizrahi Tragedy
By Sami Shalom Chetrit   

Last edited: Tuesday, August 27, 2002
Posted: Tuesday, August 27, 2002

On March 17, a district court finally ruled after a 10 year trial, that MK Arye Deri was guilty of taking bribes. Deri, the political leader and founder of the Shas movement, has disproportionate power and influence within Israel's political establishment, relative to the size of his movement. Thus the verdict has aroused an unprecedented public storm. On the one hand, the Ashkenazi elites (except those who are amongst his closest friends such as MK Haim Ramon of Labor) have celebrated the victory of the "rule of law". On the other hand, Shas supporters have followed their spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiya Yosef and saw the verdict as an expression of the Ashkenazi court's racism against the ascendance of Mizrahim power.
Sami Chetrit, one of the leaders of the radical "New Mizrahim" puts these
different assessments in perspective.

Shas - A Mizrahi Tragedy
Sami Shalom Chetrit
March 2000



What the media calls, "The Deri Affair", is in fact a microcosm of the State of Israel in the nineties. It is a large and complex knot of many threads which are tied almost to every aspect of our lives here during the last decade. I would like to focus on one thread in this knot and try to follow it from the start in order to understand where it led to. This is the main thread which influences all others - the Mizrahi thread.
Any discussion about Shas places me in an ambivalent position, at least in the
emotional sense. I must admit that before Deri's verdict was read out, my feelings were rather indifferent, but during and after hearing the verdict, live over the radio, my feelings were not the same at all. After a very short time I understood that the judge had declared not only a single individual guilty, but an entire community. It was impossible not to detect the tone of vengeance in the judge's voice. These feelings of mine became more intense in the ollowing week, during the hoopla which took place on television during the week following the announcement of the verdict - there was not a single program in which Rabbi Yosef and Deri himself were not mocked and scorned. It was impossible not to detect a clear and ugly rejoicing at the downfall of others - a collective "got you". I have no problem with the verdict itself. I am a law- biding citizen, although the law does not always abide by me. However,
the celebration, mainly an Ashkenazi one, almost caused me to declare, "We are all Arye Deris" If this had occurred a decade ago, I doubt if I could have restrained myself.
But fifteen years have passed since Shas was founded, and we have learned to understand the way it functions. Shas has grown in leaps and bounds since then, but the social order of its constituencies is in the process of disintegration. When we examine the values of social justice, we see that nothing has improved. Quite the opposite in fact - things are becoming worse; they are constantly deteriorating. When I remember this, I immediately snap out of my sentimental reaction to the trial, I have second thoughts. I have never masked my criticism of the Shas way- we must remember that Shas was instrumental in the legislation of fifteen, anti-social budget laws in all past governments; It was Deri who cooperated with Netanyahu in dividing the national budget in such an anti-social way during the last three years. I annot
forget that, even when I appear on Television with Yaron London and Amnon
Rubinstein and vehemently argue against their position, which is so total and
frightened.
My criticism of Shas will grow louder as its cynic leaders continue to exploit
the social -(not religious!) common denominator of its constituency for power plays and money games, which sometimes end up in jail. The Shas constituency is a collective of popular Mizrahim, highly aware of their economic oppression, but still totally blind to the way politicians at Shas cynically exploit them. This is the most terrible waste of a political revolutionary force that I have seen in recent history. That is why I am so angry with the leadership of Shas. It is not the bribe which Deri did or
did not take that interests me. I do not judge Deri and his associates by their morals or their honesty; but I do criticize them for their lies and deceits with which they manipulated a great innocent force that trustingly follows them, with high hopes for the expected social change. A social change that could have been effected by new social legislation and that could have made a significant difference in the quality of life of hundreds of thousands, instead of improving only the lives of a few thousands who managed to get closer to the ever- widening circle of beneficiaries from the government.
Shas is one of the tragedies of the Mizrahi struggle. One can not bring to mind even one outstanding or significant contribution that Shas has made towards the awakening and the renewal of a Mizrahi identity, one contribution to the fight to preserve its culture, one contribution to the economic struggle, , to the battle against oppression in the school system, not a single thing!
Nevertheless, there may be one positive contribution, - the consolidation of a
political Mizrahi collective, which is no longer manipulated by Zionist Ashkenazis.
This is certainly something. However, there is a hitch here - how can we free this collective from the almost magic spell that the Rabbis and leaders of Shas have cast over it? I, for the first time, am now pleading to all my comrades in the struggle of the Mizrahim for democratization - we must not give up on Shas constituency. We must address them, open their eyes, and make them aware of the true values of the struggle: social justice and cultural freedom. I do not relate to the degree of their religuousness and I do not share the Ashkenazi culture phobia. My phobia is an internal one, relating to the Mizrahi collective - if Shas continues to grow and lead its constituency while continuously pulling the wool over their eyes, I dare not think of what will happen when everything falls apart and this constituency is left naked and
helpless in the dark.
It is a mistake to think that Deri's trial is the first crack that will bring Shas
down. Only the forces of the Mizrahi struggle, working with these voters and imbuing them with a deep social consciousness, will crack the wall of deceit, built by Shas, and will turn this constituency into an independent, democratic, political collective, that has the chance to bring about real social change. And how paradoxical it seems- (though in fact it is not paradoxical at all) when it turns out that the only political forces that would do anything in their power to preserve and strengthen Shas, are the Ashkenazi economic elite ( and not only they), the Shabak ( General Security Services) and the leaders of the big parties. More than anyone else, they are bothered by the loss of Shas ability to quell social and industrial unrest. They are better guards than the most efficient police force we can think of. Shas is the greatest prison guard
of the Mizrahim, whose role it is merely to keep the streets peaceful, make its
constituency accept their lot without causing trouble, provide impoverished warm meals on the one hand, and soothing and anaesthetizing religious therapy on the other, and eliminate any chance of anyone having doubts about, questioning or examining their fate.
Those who find themselves in bed with prison guards, should not complain
when they wake up with prisoners.

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