Crowds demonstrate on trains: Shalom, Binyamina and Hof HaCarmel stations closed (Niv Aharonson)
Thousands of opponents of the legal revolution packed the platforms of Israel's major train stations for about two hours on Tuesday afternoon, calling to "stop the legislative train" in order to disrupt train traffic. Despite this, traffic continued more or less as usual, with negligible delays, thanks to great restraint on the part of the police and the Israel Railways Company, which decided to respect the freedom of protest, which spilled over from intersections and streets to train stations. The demonstrations took place in Be'er Sheva, Lod, West Yavne, Tel Aviv HaShalom, Herzliya, Binyamina and Hof HaCarmel.
But what the restrained demonstrators did not do on the platforms was a mysterious "computer glitch" towards the end of last night's protest. At 18:38, Israel Railways was forced to stop train traffic on its tracks throughout the country, "due to a computer malfunction in the railway systems." Suspiciously on the same day that disruptions were expected "in a new way, in the digital space."
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Last night's demonstration on the Herzliya train (Photo: official website, Ido Lampert)
Was there a computer malfunction or wasn't? Lavala! It became known that the source of the nationwide malfunction was at the Merkaz HaShmona station in Haifa's lower city, which was supposed to be one of the focal points of protest until it was eventually diverted to the Hof HaCarmel station. There in the center of the eight, in the offices on the second floor of the Haifa Central railway station building of yesteryear, are the servers of the national regulation system of Israel Railways.
The system gives the locomotive drivers permission to travel and updates them in real time on any occurrence essential for a safe ride on the track it is driving. According to the immigrant, shortly after 18:00 P.M., a "fire" button was pressed at the Central Hashmona station, which led to a power outage that collapsed the server of the system, which is critical from a safety point of view for train traffic, and there was no choice but to shut it down immediately. A source familiar with the nature of the malfunction explained that in such a situation of apparent fire, generators for alternative power supply are also disabled, so that the paralysis to the computers was total. Trains across the country stopped.
Last night's demonstration at the Hof HaCarmel train in Haifa (Photo: official website, Yoav Etiel)
Within minutes, it became clear that it was a false alarm, the power went back and so did the servers. Trains across the country stopped. An update from Israel Railways at 19:10 said that "the computer malfunction has been corrected and train traffic is gradually returning to normal" while warning that "in the coming hours there may still be some delays in train traffic." Indeed, passengers reported disruptions in the hours that followed.
Israel Railways is trying this morning to sharpen the factor of pressing the fire button. Israel Railways also intends to summon the Israel Police to open an investigation.
Referring to the demonstrators, Transportation and Road Safety Minister Miri Regev demanded last night that the attorney general and state prosecutor "bring them to justice in accordance with the law." "At a time when the State of Israel is being challenged by our enemies' attempts to damage national infrastructure, including Israel Railways, lawbreakers and thugs have disrupted train traffic, harmed public order, the citizens of the State of Israel and endangered human lives."
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