BICOM

Israeli government coalition partners yesterday reached an agreement over rail maintenance work on the Sabbath after Health Minister Yaakov Litzman resigned from the Cabinet.

Litzman, from the ultra-orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party, followed up on his threat on Friday and resigned because maintenance and repair work on railway lines was being carried out on the Sabbath. Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri from the Shas party also refused to attend Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting because convenience stores have been authorised to open on the Sabbath.

On Sunday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly reached a new understanding with his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, on both issues. The government will draft new legislation that clarifies the status quo on the Sabbath. This will ensure that government services and other activity such as football games and the opening of convenience stores in Tel Aviv will continue on the Sabbath.

In return, the Government will pass an amendment to a constitutional Basic Law, which will allow Litzman to serve as Deputy Minister in the Health Ministry with no minister serving above him, as was the situation prior to 2015. This settlement is acceptable to Litzman and the UTJ as being a Deputy Minister will allow him to absolve himself from collective ministerial responsibility.  In 2015, Yesh Atid successfully appealed to the High Court of Justice that this situation was untenable, forcing Litzman to receive rabbinic approval to become a full minister.

The Government will also make decisions on future national maintenance work on Shabbat based on several criteria including safety, traditional values and the disruption to public life in Israel.

Deri said: “We succeeded in reaching agreements on the minimarkets bill and on all the other issues by means of which we will maintain the status quo. The Sabbath is very important to us. This is a Jewish country and a majority of Israel’s citizens want to feel the Sabbath on streets and in cities. We held talks and meetings in order to ensure that the status quo would be maintained without coercion and without Jewish infighting.”

Yesterday hundreds of ultra-orthodox young men from the extremist “Jerusalem Faction” blocked the main entry road into Jerusalem and caused severe traffic and disruption to light rail services as they protested ultra-Orthodox induction into the army. The police used water cannons to disperse the protestors and arrested 36 people.