The cab drivers’ protest that began weeks ago due to the proposed new meter fares being instituted in Israel, once again brought traffic to a standstill on Highway 1 near the airport on Thursday.

The protest took place on Thursday evening as cab drivers blocked Highway one from the Airport interchange to Shapirim interchange. After a short while, the drivers then began to drive very slowly towards Tel Aviv. Only an hour later was the Highway open again for motorists to head home at the end of the week.

The Director of the Cab Driver’s committee Shai Dayan said during an interview with Galei Yisrael radio that: “We will do everything in our power in order to stop this change from happening. We will sacrifice our very lives over our income. We will burn others as well.”

As previously reported, the new ruling issued by the Transportation Ministry requires all taxis to install a new meter that will have different prices for fares both within cities and between cities. Fares within cities increased by 12.9% in January, but the cost of a taxi ride between cities fell by 6.7%. The revised fares are particularly harmful to taxis whose main source of income are fares that begin or end at the Airport as all of these fares are inter-city and will be priced at the reduced rate.