Ultra-Orthodox MK: We will ban new, Shabbat public transport networks

Senior United Torah Judaism leader MK Moshe Gafni vowed on Tuesday to ban the new public transport initiatives on Shabbat which have begun operations in recent months.

Gafni deplored the new networks which have been established in several cities and said that his party would amend the law to outlaw them if UTJ is part of the next governing coalition.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, Yamina party leader and Defense Minister Naftali Bennett refused to rule out voting for such a ban.

Secular Israelis have long chafed at the ban on the nationwide absence of public transport on Shabbat, and several municipal authorities have in recent months established transport networks on the Sabbath which utilize various legal loopholes to avoid being shut down by the Transportation Ministry.

The issue has become a sensitive topic in the election campaign with Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman as well as politicians from Blue and White frequently lambasting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's deference to the ultra-Orthodox parties on such matters.

Gafni's pledge to shut down the new transportation initiatives has underlined further the sensitivity of the issue.
"There has never been a reality like this where there are a few mayors who are operating public transport on Shabbat," fumed Gafni at a campaign event on Tuesday first reported on by the ultra-Orthodox B'hadrei Haredim news site.

"We will make a law so that mayors and municipal authority leaders will not be able to do what they want," he continued.

"We will pass an amendment to deal with this breach in the law."

Speaking with the Post on Tuesday, Bennett, whose New Right party initially championed secular - religious cooperation, refused to say if he would oppose such a law after being pressed on the matter, although said more generally he was "opposed to religious coercion."

Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman condemned Gafni's pledge, saying "only a strong Yisrael Beytenu can stop the ultra-Orthodox from turning Israel into a state of Jewish law."