At the request of more than 25 MKs, the Knesset interrupted its current recess on Monday, September 19, to hold a special plenary debate on the crisis surrounding infrastructure work carried out by Israel Railways on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday).

At the beginning of this month, seeking to avert a government crisis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu banned railroad work on Saturday, September 3, after ultra-Orthodox lawmakers threatened to quit his governmental coalition over highly publicized plans to upgrade Israel’s railroads on the Sabbath. After Netanyahu ordered the Sabbath construction work halted on Israel’s railroad lines, the Knesset descended into crisis, with political leaders accusing each other of flip-flopping, neglecting the public’s needs, and kowtowing to religious factions. Hundreds of thousands of commuters were also affected as the work stoppages the day before led to major traffic jams on Sunday, September 4.

Public works being conducted on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) at the HaShalom Train Station in Tel-Aviv (Photo: Israel Railways)

During Monday’s special plenary debate, members of the opposition submitted four motions for the agenda on the following topics: “The degradation of the Sabbath and the harm caused to soldiers and civilians due to the train crisis” (submitted by MKs Zehava Galon of Meretz and Yoel Hasson of the Zionist Camp); “The political conduct of the government and he who stands at its head which caused severe harm to tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians” (MKs Yael German of Yesh Atid and Ilan Gilon of Meretz); “The Prime Minister harms the general public due to personal power struggles and in order to stay in power” (MKs Dov Khenin of Hadash – Joint List and Haim Jelin of Yesh Atid); and “The hysterical conduct, lack of planning and waste of millions due to personal political considerations” (MKs Ahmad Tibi of Ta’al –  Joint List and Revital Swid of the Zionist Camp).

During the plenum debate MK Khenin said: “This crisis taught us something we should have known long ago – that public transportation is very important in a modern society and the train system is one we cannot do without. We must rid ourselves of our dependence on private vehicles and develop a worthy public transportation system. But we also learned that, in Israel, there is a government which doesn’t miss an opportunity to harm the public and cause the citizens to pay for its political fiascos.”