Yet, a further deterioration of Shabbos in Haifa: According to the municipality’s plan, Ben-Gurion’s Blvd., a central street in the city, will become a pedestrian mall on Shabbos R”L, with the aim of increasing business activity on the street.

Following the city’s plan, municipal councilor Michael Alper sent a harsh letter to Mayor Yona Yahav, warning him of a violation of the Shabbos status quo.

“The Haifa Municipality is currently announcing its intention to close Ben-Gurion Boulevard on the weekends to traffic vehicles and turn it into a pedestrian mall in order to increase business activity on the street,” Alper wrote in his letter. “The city even plans to erect permanent checkpoints which will operate on Shabbos. Chilul Shabbos, as much as it exists today in the public sphere by the business owners in the city is to the heart of every person in Israel who has a feeling of a Jewish past.”

Alper adds that “the decision to turn the street into a pedestrian mall is a call by the municipality under your leadership, to increase Chilul Shabbos in the public space and constitutes a blatant blow to the Shabbos, as well as turning Shabbos into a weekday.

“Moreover, this activity will have wide implications for other areas in the city. It is not a matter for a person who observes the commandments only, and the leaders and thinkers of the secular public in Eretz Yisrael also understood this”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)