Yediot Achronot asked some of the parties running in the national elections for a policy statement regarding calls for public bus service on Shabbos. Following are their responses.
Likud/Beitenu:
We believe in the status quo regarding public transportation on Shabbos while testing expanded service in exclusively secular areas.
Labor:
We support bus service on Shabbos in line with the needs of residents and the character of local municipalities and councils. We oppose running buses on a weekday schedule, which would compromise the day of rest and basic social rights.
HaBayit HaYehudi:
The decision must be reached as part of the overall decision addressing the character of Shabbos, which will include the matter of public transportation. Without a comprehensive solution, Shabbos will turn into a national shopping day and a social distortion.
Shas:
We oppose public transportation on Shabbos. We advocate a state with a Jewish neshama and highlighting the holy day.
The Movement:
The issue of public transportation on Shabbos must be part of a greater social agreement between the religious and non-religious in which the rights of the secular are ensured while the sensitivities of the religious are protected.
Yesh Atid:
We support running buses on Shabbos in secular areas. The current situation in intolerable and in fact, places a tax on the poor, compelling them to use taxis to get around.
Yahadut Hatorah:
We are opposed to Shabbos bus service. We oppose any form of public chilul Shabbos and any chilul of the holy day.
Meretz:
Shabbos bus service has been among our major issues during recent years. Spearheaded by our people, a number of cities have decided to progress in this area and the Ministry of Transportation remains opposed.
Hadash:
It is fine in line with the need and request for such service.
Ra’am-Ta’al:
Yes if this includes Arab municipalities but without compromising the sensitivities of the religious Jews.
Balad:
We are in favor of buses but to the exclusion of religious communities.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
Business that are open on Shabbos will normally be unwilling to hire Jews (meaning Shomer Shabbos Jews) for any positions. So on the one hand the hilonim want to break up the yeshivos by drafting all the yeshiva students as teenagers and forcing them into an inherently non-Shomer Shabbos (albeit with “heterim”) environment – and at the same expand the number of jobs that are closed to them when they finish army service.
Recipe for a problem?
It is a Jewish country, if some non Jewish group would say it is our belive not to drive or ride a bus on Tuesday then they would respect there wish the same should be by the Jews because that is what the torah commands us to do not to take what you like
1) So-called religious Jew Chaim Amsallem, of the Am Shalom party, supports chillul Shabbos buses running on Shabbos.
2) It is notable that HaBayit Hayehudi party, supposedly religious, is equivocating and not saying they outright oppose chillul Shabbos buses.
3) It is even more notable that the ARAB PARTIES are more sensitive to religious Judaism than even the Zionist parties, and they do not advocated having buses run on Shabbos in religious Jewish neighnorhoods!
A Jewish country should not have busses running on Shabbos. We don’t tell them what to do in their homes, but on the street, it should look like Shabbos. It already is the status quo. Why change it? Between drafting Yeshiva bochurim and running busses on Shabbos, this country is asking for a lot of trouble, chas v’shalom!!
Status Quo should stay with NO buses running. Those who want taxis or use private cars that is their perogative.
#3 The Arab parties may be more sensitive to no buses so that the life of a suicide bomber will only be a 6 day a week job.
Funny, the Arab parties are more sensitive to the chareidim than the secular ‘Jewish’ parties (Meretz, HaTnuah) are……