It almost appears that following the official announcement, city hall officials in Jerusalem are waiting to see/hear the reaction of the Badatz Eida Chareidis, which has indicated it will not tolerate the opening of a parking lot by the municipality towards accommodating chilul shabbos, making provisions for the large number of drivers who come to the capital on shabbos.
Mayor Nir Barkat in the beginning of the dispute agreed to postpone implementation of the new policy for two weeks, to permit negotiations in the hope of averting a shabbos war between city hall and the chareidim in the city. Barkat did stipulate however that at the end of the process, a parking lot would be opened, stated with a modicum of certainty that the delay should not be interpreted as acquiescing to Eida Chareidit demands, but rather a showing of good faith and a genuine desire to avoid conflict. The parking lot decision however is not open for discussion the mayor stressed.
According to city hall’s announcement on Monday, a private parking lot located near the Old City is being opened, not the municipal lot at Kikar Safra as originally indicated, a move taken by the mayor towards working with the Eida rabbonim.
A city hall employee told YWN that in actuality, the decision may once again be pushed off, depending on the pace and progress of talks, but he stressed a policy decision has been made and it is less relevant if implementation occurs this week, or in another week or two.
On the other side of the argument, the secular activists have been working to gather support, now giving the impression a large number of non-frum residents are moving ahead with plans for protests and other measures, decrying what they call “chareidi coercion”.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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5 Responses
Didn’t most of the Haredi reps ote for it to be open???
If we appreciate shabbos ,we won’t be given these tests. Let’s be mechazek & excited 4 shabbos
How much longer do we have to tolerate the Secular’s anti-Jewish belief in the Jewish country?
With the Filth Parade coming up this Thursday Hashem Yerachem and the Chillul Shabbat two days later Hashem Yerachem, religious Jews will be quite busy fighting the chilonim this week.
Here’s another example of “Secular Coercion”:
June 19/09 Ashkenazi: Religious Soldiers Must Tolerate Immodest Performers
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131958
Religious Jews have no right to protest, this time.
Why?
Because It was a combination of our own inaction and petty Machlokes that brought this unfortunate Tinok SheNishbe (Barakat) into power as mayor, instead of the Shomer Shabbos candidate.
He (Barakat) does not know better, but we should have.
It is we that are being held responsible BShomayim for Chillul Shabbos, not Barakat. We should be actually demonstrating against ourselves.
Now we must pay the price until the next mayoral elections. Maybe, let’s hope, we will have learned the lesson and be united next time.
This is Inyune DYoma for Parshas Korach.
Let us finally realize how bad machlokes is for all of us.
I GUESS, IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO ONE–AND ONLY ONE–QUESTION: “WHOSE COUNTRY IS IT?–DO WE RECOGNIZE THAT THIS IS HASHEM’S SPECIAL LAND?”
If we don’t, then the Arabs are right. We are interlopers, who have no special right to be there.