Religious parties agree to a committee to discuss Shabbat construction

Leaders of the ultra-Orthodox political parties agreed Tuesday on the establishment of a committee to define what kind of public construction work is considered critical and therefore permitted on Saturdays, the Jewish day of rest.

The agreement came after a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Bureau between Shas and United Torah Judaism party leaders and senior ministers, Israel Radio reported.

The conference was called after the religious parties, members of the ruling coalition, demanded an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following his decision on Friday that construction work on a train station in Tel Aviv would go ahead over the weekend despite their objections.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said at the time that postponing the work would cause a safety hazard, and that it could therefore go ahead on Shabbat. The work on the station entailed the closure of sections of the Ayalon highway, the main expressway through Tel Aviv.

The new committee was to be made up of the directors of the Prime Minister’s Office, the transportation, health and economy ministries and the heads of the ultra-Orthodox and Jewish Home parties. Representatives of the Chief Rabbinate were also set to be present.

The ultra-Orthodox parties on Sunday voiced outrage over construction work, with several reports suggesting they were calling for Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz to be fired.

Katz stressed his respect for religious values and Israel’s Jewish character, but said the work was done in line with the letter of the law, and was not a breach of the status quo.

Police and construction professionals had stated “unequivocally,” he said, that conducting the work on a weekday would have created massive congestion throughout Tel Aviv, obstructing the work of emergency services and very possibly endangering public safety.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the ultra-Orthodox leaders demanded that the CEO of Israel Railways, Boaz Tzafrir, change the company’s policy or resign, Israel Radio reported.

Work on the Shalom station is part of construction on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv high-speed train line.

Last year, then-economy minister Deri ordered a halt to all Shabbat construction on the line, in a move that Israel Railways warned would delay the project by two years.

Construction on the intercity railway was originally set to be completed by late 2017 or early 2018.

The Ports and Railways Authority said the move would effectively set back the NIS 6 billion ($1.5 billion) project — which began in 2001 — until 2020.