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Coalition tension over rail work on Jewish Sabbath
Ultra-Orthodox parties within the ruling coalition yesterday protested to the Prime Minister over a potential public breach of the Jewish Sabbath, indicating that they may consider leaving the government over the issue.
Israel Railways is planning to carry out a renovation at the Hashalom train station in Tel Aviv, which sits atop a major traffic junction. In order to minimise disruption to commuters, they intend to carry out the work over the weekend, the Jewish Sabbath.
However, yesterday three senior ultra-Orthodox MKs met to discuss their concerns and following a conversation with Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, they shared their thoughts in a strongly-worded letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, who heads Shas, and Health Minister Yaakov Litzman and Finance Committee Chairman MK Moshe Gafni, both of United Torah Judaism (UTJ), wrote: “This work, if carried out at the instructions of the Israeli government led by you, in public violation of the Sabbath, will serve as a very grave precedent and a blatant violation of the status quo.”
In what Yediot Ahronot describes as a “veiled threat” to leave the government, the letter continued, saying “we cannot bear responsibility for a government that publicly tramples the sanctity of the Sabbath”.
Public displays of respect for the Jewish Sabbath are one source of tension between the ultra-Orthodox parties and much of the rest of the political establishment. In 1999, UTJ left Ehud Barak’s government, after he permitted roads to be closed on the Sabbath in order to move a huge electric turbine.
Since Shas and UTJ re-joined the government in the wake of last year’s election, they have succeeded in rolling back various reforms which were designed to facilitate greater ultra-Orthodox participation in Israeli society. A law to mandate increased ultra-Orthodox military enlistment was nullified, and last month the Knesset voted to end a requirement for ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools to teach core secular subjects as a condition of public funding.