Outrage in Tel Aviv as light rail service limited to 43 minutes on Jewish Sabbath
Just before its anticipated launch, officials in Tel Aviv revealed that the city’s new light rail system will operate for a limited 43-minute window on Saturdays, in observance of Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.
Exciting news for Tel Aviv residents as the new public transport system is all set to kick off this Friday, providing comprehensive coverage of the metropolitan area. However, in consideration of religious sensitivities, please note that the red line will be operating with a reduced service on Saturdays.
According to Haaretz, trains departing from the city of Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, will commence their journey at 9:30 pm and reach their destination 43 minutes later at 10:13 pm.
The rail system will cover 90 km through 14 cities and serve 228 million customers per year, but many secular Israelis are unhappy with the limitations of the service in Tel Aviv on the Shabbat.
Tel Aviv is probably Israel’s most socially liberal city, and many people see the restrictions as symptomatic of the growing influence of the religious right.
“In Gush Dan [Tel Aviv’s metropolitan area] the population is secular, and the public anger over closing the light rail on Saturday is significant,” activist Naor Narkis, founder of Yisrael Neora, told Haaretz.
“This is the largest transportation project passing through a clearly secular area, and we cannot remain silent in the face of it being closed 21 percent of the time.”
Due to religious holidays, Narkis believes that trams will not run for 77 days in 2024 which has led to disappointment among Tel Aviv residents about its long-anticipated launch with protests expected.
Transport Minister Miri Regev was told he was “unwelcome” when he visited the port city of Jaffa, which was annexed to Tel Aviv in 1950, on Wednesday with threats by activists to block train traffic.
“We are a million residents of Bat Yam, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan and Petah Tikva and we’ve waited seven years [for the light rail,]” one protest group told Regev, according to Haaretz.
“But taking the train out of commission won’t take even one vehicle off the road, and we will keep standing still in traffic jams and not receive a basic service that exists in other democracies. If we don’t have a light rail on Saturdays, you will have a rough Saturday too.”
Israel has witnessed months of protests against a planned judicial overhaul with Tel Aviv an epicentre for the anti-government movement.
Activists believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government is looking to centralise authority via legal changes and have also bemoaned the growing power of the religious right.
Israel launched its first Saturday bus service in Tel Aviv only in 2019 and cannot charge customers in order not to break Jewish law.
