Jerusalem – A dispute over work on Shabbat on Israel Railways’ projects threatens to derail not only trains across the country but also Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.
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The dispute over Shabbat work for the second weekend in a row erupted after United Torah Judaism’s representatives on a committee, formed to assess which transportation projects could be completed on the Sabbath, permitted none.
Netanyahu blamed the crisis on Transportation Minister Israel Katz, whose political fate was up in the air at press time Saturday night. Likud sources said there was a good chance the prime minister could decide to fire Katz, a former close ally.
“This unnecessary crisis was initiated by Katz in order to harm Netanyahu’s relationship with the haredi [ultra-Orthodox] community or alternatively to harm the prime minister’s image in the general public,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Saturday night.
The statement said there was no reason for the work to be performed on Shabbat in the first place and that it could have been done at another time without hurting the religious population or public transportation users, including soldiers on their way to and from bases.
“Israel Katz is holding the passengers and soldiers hostage in the artificial crisis he initiated after he failed to take over institutions in the Likud,” Netanyahu’s office said. “The prime minister is shocked by Katz’s cynical harm to the passengers and soldiers, and he is doing everything possible to minimize the damage.”
But Katz’s associates said it was Netanyahu who initiated the crisis, because he was looking for an excuse to fire him. He kept mum, not releasing any official statements over the weekend.
Allies of Katz in the Likud began efforts to prevent his firing.
Labor and Social Services Minister Haim Katz (no relation) and coalition chairman David Bitan both volunteered to mediate between Netanyahu and Katz.
Opposition parties said the prime minister is to blame.
They held protests outside the Tel Aviv Savidor Central Railway Station and operated hotlines to help passengers get where they needed to go.
In a joint statement, the IDF and the Defense Ministry said they would operate bus services for soldiers in place of the regular train service. Dozens of buses will ferry soldiers between northern and central Israel in both directions, the statement said.
To run that service, 100 government workers ended up working on Shabbat, more than would have worked on the three projects Israel Railways said were the most necessary to be completed on the day of rest. Channel 2 reported that the replacement transportation projects cost millions of shekels.
Meretz chairwoman Zehava Gal-On petitioned the High Court of Justice for an injunction requiring the reinstatement of train service and railway work on Shabbat.
The court convened on Shabbat to turn down Gal-On’s request but said a more formal response would be delivered Monday.
“Netanyahu initiated the crisis in order to settle a score with Katz,” said Zionist Union MK Shelly Yacimovich. “The tragedy is that the citizens of Israel are pawns in a cynical political game in Netanyahu’s mad pursuit to gain more and more power and control.”
Yesh Atid opened an online website in order to help soldiers and the elderly reach their destinations after Shabbat.
The new website aims to connect volunteers with soldiers, elderly citizens and other people who rely on public transportation to reach their destination, according to Yesh Atid’s spokesman.
In order to run this service, the party set up a special operations room in their headquarters with volunteers connecting those who wish to help and those who need a ride.
The party’s statement said “We heard the voices of the citizens and of the soldiers that don’t know how they will manage to reach their destination on Sunday morning and we decided to take action for them.
It can’t be that a citizen needs to cancel a work day, or the elderly will not have a way to be mobile or a soldier will need to shorten the duration of his visit home with his parents and family, due to political arguments within the government.”
A source from the state-owned Israel Railways said some 20 work permits defined as essential were prepared for this Shabbat.
“Due to the cessation of work for development and upgrading, a few minutes before Shabbat, technical teams that deal with the disassembly of part of the railway were forced to leave their work places without being able to restore the conditions to their previous state,” a statement from Israel Railways said.
“Some of the work will be done following Shabbat. Therefore, significant changes on the train routes will occur on Saturday night and Sunday.”
I can’t wait for the day when the Ribono Shel Olam says that He’s had enough already. We can only daven that the imploding of the State and all the apikorsim along with it, should come about in a peaceful way for the Am Hashem.
Here in New York every weekend the MTA is doing work on various subway lines. In most cases they set up shuttle buses. Why can’t the Israeli train service set up buses???