Speaking at an assembly hosted in Ashdod organized by the Chotem organization under the banner, “Loving Shabbos”, Bayit Yehudi MK Moti Yogev explained in his opinion, the Supermarket/Shabbos Law is a bad law at best.

The point of the assembly was to support and encourage businesses closing their doors on the day of rest, a response to many non-religious Jews who are now calling to open businesses on Shabbos.

He cited the tensions in the city today, those for and against opening stores on Shabbos. He feels the issue is they lack access to either the Ministry of Religious Services or Ministry of the interior, which are both in Shas hands.

“The law is very bad, because it says: ‘The interior minister has the authority to close.’ And if the interior minister of the next government is someone from Yesh Atid for example, he believes the stores should be open, then he will open it…We needed a law of substance, we missed it, it was missed by the interior minister,” he added.

He explains in Ashdod for example, if all the religious Jews would unite they would have koach but this does not occur as the litvish, chassidish, Sephardi, dati leumi, all remains separate from one another. Yogev believes a united religious front has enormous power but this is yet to occur.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)