Deputy Minister of Transportation Uri Makalev of Torah Judaism said this morning that his party insists that "there will be no work on Shabbat at all."
In an interview with Kol Barama radio he said: "We are not ready to give that up."
The deputy minister who participated yesterday in a meeting at the Ministry of Transportation with Israel Railways senior officials said that "the working assumption is that there is no work on Shabbat. You cannot use the concept of 'psychological supervision' for everything. Maybe we will also open the health insurance funds on Shabbat? It is possible to plan things without working on Shabbat. In the municipality Jerusalem, we built all the tunnels and roads without the need to desecrate the Sabbath."
Makleb said that due to the fact that the people of Torah Judaism do not have an understanding in the field of engineering and construction, he would recommend bringing in professionals to guide them on how to carry out the work without desecrating the Sabbath.
According to him, "We can't argue with the railway workers, we need to bring in professionals who worked as engineers in the railway in the past and show them how it is possible not to work on Shabbat".
Uri Makalev, swearing in of the government, Knesset, December 29, 2022 (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Transport Minister Miri Regev last night instructed Israel Railways executives to prepare a plan by the end of the week to reduce work on Shabbat - according to two sources who were present at the meeting held at the office.
This, after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke with her, and asked her to "deal with" the demand of the chairman of Torah Judaism, Minister Yitzhak Gudelknopf, to stop the railway work on Shabbat. Netanyahu informed about this at the meeting of the leaders of the coalition parties that was held earlier. Before the meeting, Regev's entourage said that "There will be no change in the status quo and the electrical work on the train will be completed as planned." According to them, the specific work that was carried out last Saturday "touched human life", and was in the nature of mental supervision that necessitated its existence, but they did not provide details about it.
During the meeting, Israel Railways officials clarified that some of the work being conducted on Shabbat is "safety work", such as the one conducted during the last Shabbat, and Regev requested that the program focus on reducing work that suffers delays.
Deputy Minister Uri Maklev of Torah Judaism who was present at the angry meeting and demanded that "no work be done on Shabbat" but officials present at the meeting made it clear to him that "this is not possible".
Given this, the working assumption is that "the status quo will be maintained" and there will be no significant changes.
The senior officials of the railway even clarified that there was no change from the period of Minister Michaeli to the current period and the pace of work has not changed.
At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that Israel Railways would present Sarah with solutions to reduce work on Shabbat by the end of the week.
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