Shlomo Benizri

Shlomo Benizri was born in 1961 in Nesher, near Haifa, to a large, traditional family that had immigrated from Morocco.[7] He attended a secular high school and later served in an intelligence unit of the Israel Defense Forces.[7] His religious transformation began near the end of his military service, when he encountered Rabbi Reuven Elbaz, a figure who would become central to his personal and political life.[7]

Benizri described his turn toward observance as gradual, influenced in part by witnessing his older brother's return to religious practice.[8] Before his own transformation, he recalled thinking that observant Jews were "miserable" and suffering, but after spending a week at Elbaz's Or HaChaim yeshiva he said he was immediately "captured" by the experience and did not want to exchange it for anything.[8] He went on to study at Or HaChaim for ten years and received rabbinical ordination there.[7] He has since lectured on Judaism, headed a Talmudic college, and published two books.[1]

In 1984 he married Yaffa Hayon, a hospital nurse. The couple had eight children and, by the time of a 2012 profile, eight grandchildren.[7]

In 1992, Rabbi Reuven Elbaz sent Benizri to the Knesset as his representative within the Shas party.[7] Benizri was first elected that year and served from the 13th through the 17th Knessets, leaving office in 2008.[1][2]

From 1992 to 1996, Benizri sat on the Finance Committee and the Anti-Drug Abuse Committee and headed the Shas Knesset faction.[1] He served as deputy minister of health from 1996 to 1999 and as minister of health from July 1999 until his resignation in July 2000.[1] He later served as minister of labor and social affairs from March 2001 to February 2003.[1] Profiles identify these cabinet tenures with the governments led by Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, respectively.[7]

At sentencing later in April 2008, the District Court ruled that Benizri's offenses involved moral turpitude, resulting in his automatic suspension from the Knesset.[5] The Jewish Virtual Library reports that he resigned from the Knesset on the day he was sentenced.[1]

Following his release, Benizri's public role centered on religious teaching and commentary. A later profile described him as a rabbi and lecturer serving traditional audiences and people returning to Judaism.[9]

In 2017, he became editor of Yom Leyom, a Shas-associated newspaper that had been published for 23 years.[10] Benizri said that he would preserve a Shas presence in the newspaper while remaining willing to criticize the party. He also noted that working largely from home allowed him to continue studying Torah and writing books.[10]

On April 1, 2008, the Jerusalem District Court convicted Benizri of bribery, breach of faith, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to commit a crime.[3][4] The case concerned his dealings with manpower contractor Moshe Sela during 1996–2001, when Benizri held senior posts in the health and labor-and-welfare ministries.[4]

The court found that Sela financed expenses in a defamation lawsuit, purchased furniture, and paid for an air-conditioning system in Benizri's home.[4] Verdict coverage also recorded Sela's allegation that he had provided regular monthly support, but Judge Yaakov Tzaban found insufficient corroboration for that part of Sela's testimony and acquitted Benizri of receiving regular monthly payments.[4]

The court found that Benizri used his influence over foreign-worker allocations, passed Sela valuable internal Employment Service information, and appointed Sela's wife as head of his bureau and Sela's brother-in-law as his personal driver.[4][4] It also found that he intervened in matters affecting Sela's businesses and attempted to help Sela and businessman David Azrieli obtain foreign workers for the Azrieli project.[4]

Verdict coverage emphasized that the court did not accept every part of Sela's testimony. Judge Tzaban said that Sela had exaggerated and embellished some claims while also presenting other facts that were undisputed or independently proven.[4] One obstruction-of-justice finding concerned a fictitious ceremony staged in front of witnesses in which Benizri purported to return money received from Sela.[11] The court acquitted him of other allegations, including receiving $200,000 and certain apartment-related transactions.[4]

The case also involved Rabbi Elbaz, Benizri's spiritual and political patron. The court convicted Elbaz of mediation in bribery and conspiracy to commit a crime in connection with money from Sela, including NIS 200,000 and $30,000 transferred to Elbaz's Or HaChaim yeshiva.[4]

Three weeks after the verdict, the District Court sentenced Benizri to 18 months in prison and fined him NIS 80,000, reported at the time as approximately $23,000.[3][1] Both sides appealed: the state sought a seven-year term, while Benizri challenged his conviction, sentence, and the moral-turpitude finding.[5] In June 2009, a Supreme Court panel comprising Justices Edmond Levy, Esther Hayut, and Hanan Melcer increased the prison term to four years.[5][5] Justice Levy wrote that growing corruption in Israel's governing institutions required a higher "price tag" for such offenses and stressed that public servants must act with clean hands and keep the public interest foremost.[5]

Contemporaneous accounts conflict over the final fine. Globes reported that the Supreme Court left Benizri's NIS 80,000 fine unchanged, while the U.S. State Department's 2009 report stated that it was increased to NIS 250,000, approximately $66,000.[12][5]

Benizri began serving his sentence in the religious wing of Ma'asiyahu Prison in Ramle on September 1, 2009.[1][13] During his imprisonment, he taught fellow prisoners classes in Torah, ethics, science, and Judaism. The parole board described him as sensitive to other inmates, who frequently relied on him as a "listening ear," while the State Prosecutor's Office did not oppose his early release and praised his conduct.[14][13]

A parole committee reduced his sentence by one-third, citing his good conduct and contribution to the prison community.[14] The Israel Prison Service subsequently advanced his release date by two months as part of an administrative release of approximately 600 prisoners prompted by overcrowding.[6] Benizri left Ma'asiyahu on March 1, 2012, after serving two and a half years of his four-year term.[6]

Upon his release, Benizri continued to reject the conviction, saying that the state had erred by imprisoning him and had relied on a "lying state witness."[6]

In 2018, state witness Moshe Sela, whose testimony had been central to the prosecution, publicly claimed that he had lied during the trial under heavy police pressure.[15] Benizri cited that claim when he petitioned President Reuven Rivlin in 2019 for a pardon and a cleared criminal record.[15] Rivlin rejected the request, with his office stating that disputes over a witness's reliability were matters for the courts rather than grounds for the presidential pardon process.[15]