Tel Aviv Light Rail Will Run on Shabbos Despite Religious Opposition

Labor chairwoman Merav Michaeli announced on Motzei Shabbos that the Tel Aviv light rail will run on Shabbos, despite backlash from the Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel.

Michaeli claimed that the decision is within her authority as transportation minister and that no government will be able to revoke her decision, saying, “I am happy to announce that starting next year, the light rail in Tel Aviv and the surrounding area will also operate on Shabbat. This is my decision – and that’s how it’s going to be.”

Source: Ynetnews ((Photo: Kobe Koankes))

In response to this brazen decision, UTJ Uri Maklev said: “It would have been preferable for her to first answer about her failures in the management of her ministry – drivers sitting for many hours in huge traffic jams, dysfunction in public transportation, the damage to the periphery and price increases throughout the country, and the delays in work in all areas of the ministry. Unfortunately, while the ministry is in a state of dysfunction, the Transportation Minister chooses to divert the discussion from the crisis on the roads by attacking Shabbos.”

UTJ MK Meir Porush also took to slamming the decision saying, “The Transportation Minister of the state of Tel Aviv, who has brought the state of public transportation to a new low, promises that if she remains in her position, she’ll focus on the one thing she’s good at – destruction. History proves that whoever starts up with Shabbos fails. B’ezras Hashem, on the 7th of Cheshvan, Michaeli will also become history.”