Israel's High Court of Justice has issued a temporary injunction to maintain the status quo on Sabbath infrastructure works following a petition by Israel Railways. The government has until September 29 to respond on the matter.
Last week Minister of Economy Aryeh Deri (Shas) prohibited Israel Railways from carrying out infrastructure and maintenance work on Saturdays. Following the instruction, Israel Railways warned that passenger services on Fridays and Saturday nights would be hit, when the company would have to carry out the works instead. Under the status quo Israel Railways does not run passenger services on the Jewish Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) but uses the time for critical maintenance work and construction.
Israel Railways also warned that the opening of the new Tel Aviv-Jerusalem fast rail link could be put back two years because of the instruction, which it said would also cost the government-owned company billions of shekels.
The Ministry of Economy said, "The ministry's policy regarding permits to work on Sabbath in urgent cases has not changed. According to Minister of Economy Aryeh Deri's instructions government companies wanting work permits on the Sabbath must now apply to the responsible minister. If Israel Railways wants to work on the Sabbath it must apply to Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz and it will receive a permit."
But the Ministry of Transport insists that Aryeh Deri has sole responsibility for issuing Sabbath work permits and that if he wants to avoid his responsibilities, it must be done in an orderly and official way and not through unilaterally changing procedures.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 27, 2015
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