The ministers argue, and the citizens are hurt - separate faith from agenda Israel today

The State of Israel has gone off the rails in recent weeks.

It started with leftists who declared a "fratricidal war", boycotted restaurants with kosher certificates and attacked many Israelis just because they are religious.

However, then they were joined by senior officials in the government.

These decided to throw the baby out with the water, to declare war on logic and to damage important projects - just because they think it is an agenda that their people support.

Culture Minister Miki Zohar has decided that the "Israeli Sabbath" initiative will be discontinued, under which museums are open for free on Fridays and Saturdays.

A blessed project, which in practice reduces Shabbat desecration.

It is true that the Israelis arrive by car to the museum, but there they spend a whole day of cultural entertainment without desecrating the holy day in a dramatic way.

The alternatives they have - malls, shopping centers or movie theaters - constitute a more significant desecration in terms of Halacha.

Minister Miki Zohar, photo: Oren Ben Hakon

This is not the first time that a traditional minister makes a decision that he thinks will benefit the agenda, but in fact harms it significantly.

Possibly because Judaism is seen by those politicians as black and white.

In recent years, ministers and Knesset members from the right have been working aggressively against what they define as desecration of Shabbat, even when there is no need for it.

In practice this only provokes antagonism.

It was the same with the railway works on Saturday or the football games on Saturday.

There is no use in initiatives that harm huge segments of the Israeli population just in the name of some agenda.

There are secular, traditional, religious and ultra-Orthodox in the country, and they all have to get along.

More than 20 years ago, the late Prof. Ruth Gavizon and Rabbi Yaakov Midan sat down together and drafted a treaty that determined how we should all live together. In the Gavizon-Midan treaty, they formulated rules that should regulate our lives. Shabbat, they wrote, should be a day of rest, which also includes Entertainment for those who do not observe Shabbat. In this spirit, it can be estimated, former minister Hili Troper initiated the "Israeli Shabbat" project. And this minister Zohar asked to close.

Hili Trooper, photo: Olivia Pitosi/Flash 90

Honorable ministers, you are confused.

You were elected to govern, but governing does not mean imposing your position on all Israelis.

There are 50 shades of green in Israel: orthodox, religious, traditional and secular.

And you should be able to rule over everyone with wisdom and moderation.

Not to harm the project that allows Shabbat-observants to enter museums for free on Friday, and also allows those who do not keep Shabbat as a rule to spend a cultural day, with minimal Shabbat desecration.

Embrace your position, don't force it.

Don't hurt people in the name of the agenda.

When you sign a decision that hurts the secular, you are signing a future decision that will hurt the religious.

When you take an extreme step, you invite the other side to take extreme steps of their own, now or in the future.

Today you closed a museum on Shabbat, and tomorrow someone will close a synagogue on Shabbat.

Members of Knesset, ministers, and just citizens: stop the extremism, stop the boycott, stop the hatred of the other and the misunderstanding of the other.

We have differences of opinion, and that's fine, but the one who unites is the one who separates, and every draconian step, boycott or harm on another side, tears us apart.

The time has come to return to the Gavizon-Midan treaty, to connect the parties despite the differences and disputes.

It's time to return to normality, both on the right and on the left.

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