Tel Aviv – The Municipal Council approved a resolution on Monday night to ask the Transportation Ministry for permission to operate public transport systems on Shabbat.
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Proposed by Meretz councilwoman Tamar Zandberg, in conjunction with the secularist Be Free Israel organization, the motion passed 13 – 7, and was also supported by Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai.
According to the proposal, the municipality will request permission from the Commissioner for Public Transport of the Transportation Ministry to operate public transportation on Shabbat. The commissioner is authorized by law to approve such requests in cases where a municipality considers such services to be essential, as well as in situations where public transport serves a non-Jewish population, or for the purposes of transport to a hospital.
The proposal will now pass to the municipality administration where it will most likely pass as well.
“There’s no doubt this is a great achievement, almost historic” said Be Free Israel director Mickey Gitzin following the vote. “It’s now a campaign that has just begun, and along with this optimism, the politicians have to know that we’re not going home until there’s a bus to take us there. No-one can bury this struggle.
Binyamin Babayouf, a Tel Aviv city councilman for Shas, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that he and his party would fight and protest against any effort to run public transport in the city on Shabbat and festivals.
“The [ancient] Greeks, Stalin and Communist Russia and many others have all tried to prevent Jews from observing Shabbat but none of them succeeded and they won’t succeed here in Tel Aviv either.
Babayouf denied that the lack of public transportation on the Sabbath constituted religious coercion and said that no one was trying to force people to be religiously observant.
“More than the Jewish people have guarded Shabbat, Shabbat has guarded the Jewish people,” he nevertheless said. “It is one of the greatest things that has distinguished us from other peoples. If we open government offices and run public transport, what will be the difference between a Jew living here and a Jew living in the US, Europe or Uganda? What did we come here for?” he asked.
A spokesman for Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau said he would not comment publicly on the issue.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
Another crack in an already fragile “state”
Their buses will take people to the 50th shaar hatima every Friday night – which means that they just save on taxi fare that they pay to get there anyway!
Its ridiculous that there no public transportation on shabbos. Probably most of Tel-Aviv dont keep shabbos anyways so what does it matter? This is religious coercion.
For Jews, freedom is being free to serve Hashem, not to just indulge the animal soul. The animal soul and G-dly soul need to love Hashem and do His will-that is real freedom.
Why wouldn’t. Rav Lau comment in public he should be screaming in public sabbath sabbath shame on him
Too bad we haven’t kept Shabbos holy enough that even the tinokos shenishbau would be inspired to try it too.
What a wasted opportunity to teach yiddishkeit thru sincere love of torah and mitzvos and instead have regressed to religious coercion. It destroyed yiddishkeit in Europe and appears to be heading in the same direction in eretz yisroel, r”l.
could someone explain to me,being that tel-aviv is 95% secular and not shomer shabbos,what right do the frum have in forcing the buses not to run on shabbos? or better yet even in jerusalem,what gives us frum jews the right to close the streets which are publicly owned.?
if we cannot force a jew to keep shabbos inside his home,then why oh why should we able to force him to keep shabbos in the street?,
how would we jews like it if here in america or europe the government would tell us we can’t drive our cars on sunday because it is their holiday? we would be protesting,running to the courts and shouting about our freedoms and calling the law antisemitic and rightfully so.
if that’s the case, why the double standard?
When the State was founded, the Zionists promised that in exchange for the support of the religious, they would maintain the Jewishness of the State vis-a-vis Shabbat laws. What happened?
No one has a right to public transportation on any day of the week, including shabbos. If the govt wants to provide it 24/7 (or license a private company to provide it), then fine. If the govt wants to provide it every other day, or every day except alternate Wednesdays every third month, or every day except shabbos, that’s also within the govt’s perogative.
looks like all that spitting at little girls, dressing as concentration camp prisoners, burning bus stops & avoiding Army service is starting to pay off!
You have turned so many people against “Yiddishkeit” that I am sure that that is the reason that Moshiach hasn’t come yet.