Shas party leader Minister Aryeh Deri plans to step up the battle against chilul Shabbos in cities around Israel following the recent controversy over Israel Railways’ maintenance and upgrading work on a number of consecutive Shabbatot.

Deri is working to prevent the committee which will be making recommendations regarding businesses operating in Tel Aviv on Shabbos, from permitting Tel Aviv to amend its municipal law to permit the chilul Shabbos. The committee is made of directors-general of a number of ministries, including the Prime Minister’s Office, and is expected to permit the opening of a limited number of stores on the holy day.

Deri is actually trying to prevent some of the stores already operating from continuing to do so, such as kiosks, fearing the chilul Shabbos trend set in Tel Aviv may chas v’sholom set a precedent for other cities in Israel.

For Shas and Yahadut Hatorah, the Shabbos status quo has been an uphill battle in this administration as many cities in the country are working to provide limited bus service for residents and the trend in a growing number of non-chareidi areas is to permit stores to open as they wish.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)