The outgoing transport minister has ordered the establishment of a professional team to examine whether it is possible to determine that a vehicle less than a decade old can only pass a health test once every two years

• The possibility of testing every two years for a vehicle less than ten years old will be examined

  Photo: 

  Yossi Seliger

Just before his term of office, Transport Minister Bezalel Smutrich ordered the establishment of a professional team in his office to examine the possibility that in a vehicle up to ten years can only be tested once a year (test) once a year instead of the year as is customary today.

According to Minister Smutrich, the advances in technology and the safety and alert systems in the new vehicles make it possible to carry out the safety test once every two years while maintaining passenger safety.

His brief tenure at the Department of Transportation ends Smutrich with a chain of struggles. This week he is in the middle of the storm around the operation of Israel Railways this Sunday. The National Transportation Authority announced last Wednesday that it had received approval from the Ministry of Health to return train operations earlier this week without limiting the amount of passengers in the cars. However, Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Seaman sent a letter that evening to Railways Director Michael Mykesner, stating: "I would like to make it clear that the Ministry of Health has not given its approval to resume train traffic on Sunday."

Minister Smutrich described the chain of events yesterday (Thursday) as "the banana republic's conduct. Ego battles on the back of passengers. The contradictory letter from the Director General of the Ministry of Health to the train over the head of the office is an unbearable conduct that cannot be accepted. "

As a result of the confusion, the Director General of the Ministry of Health apologized to the Minister of Transport Bezalel Smutrich and the public's passengers for the misunderstanding that the office was in the process of approving the train journey. 

Meanwhile, Smutrich and his friends on the right, Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, launched a fierce offensive against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night against the backdrop of the government train, under which he received a small number of cases to the right. Against the backdrop of the swearing-in of the government for next week, the three made it clear at a press conference that they convened that they would not be part of the coalition. Speaker Yemina Bennett said "there is no negotiation with the Likud," and Smutrich added: "We did not want and did not ask but we are at peace with it and go to the opposition with our heads up."