Storm Erupts Over Public Transportation on Shabbat

Political, religious and social activism leaders traded blows on Tuesday following Monday’s decision by the Tel Aviv Municipality to advance a request to the Transportation Ministry to operate city public transportation on Shabbat.

Following the approval of the proposal, a spokesman said the ministry “[would] not infringe [upon] the status quo which has been in place for decades regarding all aspects of public transport on Shabbat.”

In response, Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On called on the attorney-general to explain to Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) that he is obliged to use professional considerations alone in weighing such requests.

“The status quo regarding religion and state has no legal validity, and the refusal of the minister to grant a license would not stand up to examination by the High Court of Justice,” Gal-On said.

The secular majority in Tel Aviv wants public transportation on Shabbat, as indicated in the hearing and vote yesterday, she said, calling the issue a matter of social justice, environmental concern and freedom of religion. “The secular community will not force those who observe the commandments to get on buses, but the need and desire of people without private vehicles to get about on the weekend must also be respected,” she added.

The “status quo” refers to an understanding created in 1947 between David Ben- Gurion and the Agudat Yisrael movement, which represented the period’s ultra-Orthodox community, that addressed the community’s concerns about the status of religion in the putative state.

Since then, the so-called status quo has preserved the statuses – as they were in 1947 – of many religious issues, including public transportation.

In general, establishments providing leisure activities and food may stay open on Shabbat, while most other shops are closed.

Many restaurants nevertheless close because the rabbinate will not provide a certificate of kashrut if they open on Shabbat.

Limited bus service runs in Haifa on Shabbat as per the status quo, which was originally put in place to account for the needs of the city’s large non-Jewish population.