Netanyahu presses Transportation Minister ‘to handle it’ haredi demand that infrastructure work not be carried out on the Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Transportation Minister Miri Regev (Likud) to comply with demands by a senior haredi lawmaker that infrastructure work not be carried out during the Sabbath.
On Sunday morning, United Torah Judaism (UTJ) chairman and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf penned a letter to Regev, calling on her to ensure that infrastructure work slated to take place on the Sabbath be rescheduled.
“It has been brought to my attention that there is work on Shabbat at the Israel Railways that does not meet the definition of pikuach nefesh (work which is necessary because of a danger to human life) at all.”
A day earlier, footage of railway construction work in north Tel Aviv on the Sabbath was published on social media outlets, prompting the UTJ chief’s missive to Regev.
A report published by Walla Sunday evening said that Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke with Regev about Goldknopf’s request, instructing the Transportation Minister “to handle” the rescheduling.
Transportation Ministry officials are expected to meet Sunday evening to discuss the issue, though sources close to Regev say that she is determined that there “will be no change to the status quo, and the electrical work on the trains will be completed as planned.”
The sources cited in the report claimed the work carried out this past Saturday could not have been delayed because it “regarded human life,” and was equivalent to a life-or-death situation.
Source: Arutz 7