The Company known as Netta, which is a Hebrew acronym for City Public Transportation Lanes is threatening the city of Bnei Brak by saying that if they are not allowed to work on Shabbos on the construction of the lines then they will not build the routes to service the city.
According to news reports that surfaced on Monday evening in Israel, Netta sent t he ultimatum by letter to the City Council of Bnei Brak which is preventing the work from being done on Shabbos.
CEO of Netta, Yehuda Bar-On said in the letter to the Mayor of Bnei Brak and the council: “As we approach the end of the planning stage, and as a lesson that we learned from construction on the red-line, we hereby request in advance your agreement for us to carry out construction work to bore tunnels for the subway on a continuing basis seven days a week.”
“At this point in the planning we can still make changes,” said Bar-On before he made the threat. “If you refuse our request, then we will adjust the route of the service lines to not enter the borders of Bnei Brak.”
In order to soften the blow, Bar-On added: “Netta respects the sensitivities of the residents and does not intend to interfere with the sanctity of Shabbos in the city. We have no plans to conduct any construction work on Shabbos with the exception of what is required to ensure the safety of the residents. as has been explained many times previously, the stopping of the boring machines endangers the stability of the very ground on which the city is built. Therefore, it is the only responsible choice to allow for continued boring of the tunnels underneath the earth.”
Bnei Brak Mayor, Rabbi Chanoch Zeibart expressed how hurt he felt due to the work that was being done on Shabbos in the city. “The company that is overseeing the project, and has numerous times in the past broken their promises to the city and has desecrated the Shabbos – is seemingly trying to abuse this time period when we are shortly after elections in order to make demands.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
it shouldnt be hard to answer the ultimatum: no train
i dont think there will be a single yid in bnei brak be him eitz gimmmel, agudah or whatever, who will suport such blatant chillul shabos
a train is not pikuach nefashos.
better not to desecrate shabbos than have train service, israel has manafed for years without it, we can continue handling it with busses.
Absurd!! Isn’t it amazing how subways in the rest of the world get built on 5 day work weeks but only in Israel do they say they have to work 7 days a week to build one???!
And this is considered a Jewish state?!
Right here in Canada there was a construction recently of subway that I passed by nearly every Sunday. I never saw any work being done on Sunday. I don’t see why here they (normally) take a day off every week but in Israel they have a problem? But I do have one question – are the workers paid the same as every other day of the week or is Saturday pay different somehow?