The coalition crisis surrounding the work on the Tel Aviv Light-Rail has shifted into a new gear within the Charedi parties themselves. Interior Minister and Shad faction head Aryeh Deri was infuriated with the UTJ faction head and Health Minister Yaakov Llitzman after Litzman threatened to resign over the desecration of Shabbos that occurs each week. Even from within Litzman’s own party he faced opposition in the form of MK Moshe Gafni who objected to Litzman’s polemic against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu following this past weekend’s turn of events.

Deri and Gafni have come out and said that the proper way to fight the battle for the sanctity of Shabbos, is via the creation of laws and governmental decisions enshrining the holiness of the day. They believe that departing the government now, due to very specific incidents regarding the construction work would ruin whatever chance they have of enshrining the sanctity of the day in the future. This has led to a very unique instance, in which the Charedi parties have not joined ranks when it comes to a Religion-vs.-State issue.

Members of the Charedi parties made it known that they received missives from Israel Railways that the will continue to do maintenance and construction work during this coming Shabbat as well. Israel Railways has stated that these maintenance works need to occur four times in a calendar year and there is no way to postpone them. Once the intention of Israel Railways was made clear, the Prime Minister’s Office, together with the Transportation Ministry, and the Social Work and Labor Ministries began working on a solution that will avoid a potential coalition crisis.

However, Israel Railways has upped the ante this time. They are requesting permission to employ upwards of 100 Jewish employees on Shabbat so as to avoid having to perform the required maintenance work on a weekday, something that would cause transportation havoc throughout the central and coastal regions of the country.

It is expected that Litzman will reissue his threat from last week, that if the work transpires then he would resign as Health Minister. From all reports received thus far, Deri and Gafni will not be following suit.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)