The political crisis surrounding the construction of the Yehudit Bridge over the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv has returned to the docket of discussions in the  political sphere. According to the newly released decision by Attorney General’s Office that construction on the bridge will resume on Friday and carry on unimpeded inducing on Shabbosim.

According to channel 13 news, the Attorney General gave its decision on Tuesday evening that would allow the construction to be carried out even on Shabbos. It will continue for the next six Shabbosim.

This step brought about a political crisis between the Chareidi parties and the rest of the previous government. The crisis resulted in Transportation Minister Yisroel Katz’s decision to freeze the construction.

The city of Tel Aviv appealed Katz’s decision in the High Court of Justice. The Transportation Ministry notified the court that the construction work would be halted for six months and then conducted simultaneously with the electrical work that needs to be carried out for Israel Railways without desecrating Shabbos.

However, on Tuesday, the Ministry together with Netivei Ayalon repealed their notice. At once the City of Tel Aviv demanded that the construction work be started up again.

The issue is expected to raise the ire of the Chareidi parties, especially that their major weapon of deterrence, that of pulling out of the government, is now ineffective for the next three months.

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai was ecstatic at the turn of events: “As I have said many times, the Yehudit bridge will rise up and become a reality. The Transportation Minister was forced to come down off of his high-horse and repeal his own notice and order the resumption of construction. It is sad that a project that is this important to society as a whole was hampered because of political reasoning.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)