After Transport Minister Rav Michaeli’s announcement that she is examining the operation of the light rail in Tel Aviv on Saturdays, Deputy Mayor Yossi Havilio sent a letter demanding that the train in Jerusalem be operated on Saturdays as well. In response to the words, Mayor Eliezer Rauchbarger, deputy mayor, says: “His package is turning the municipality into a circus.”
Published on: 25.8.22 20:58
A legitimate demand or an act of clowning and circus? Deputy Mayor Yossi Havilio today (Thursday, August 25) sent an appeal to the Minister of Transportation Rav Michaeli with a demand to examine the operation of the light rail in Jerusalem on Saturdays. Havilio’s demand came in the wake of Transportation Minister Michaeli’s announcement this week that she is examining the operation of the light rail in Gush Dan on Saturdays.
In his appeal to the Minister of Transportation, Havaliu wrote, among other things, that “we must not forget those who live outside the state of Tel Aviv, the demand in Jerusalem for light rail and public transportation on Saturdays is much greater than in Gush Dan.”
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In the letter it is stated that the demand is based on the size of the population relevant to the calculation of the demand and supply data: for example, in the letter Habilio explains that Jerusalem is home to about a million Jerusalemites and Jerusalemites, where about a third of them are not Jewish. In addition, about a third of the Jewish residents of Jerusalem – do not observe Shabbat. This, without referring to the crowds of tourists, from home and abroad, who visit the city every Saturday.
“This is first and foremost a story of social justice, and not just a transportation issue,” Havilio explains his appeal to the Minister of Transportation. “Today there is an absurd reality where every Shabbat there are about half a million Jerusalemites who are forced to stay at home or get around using expensive taxis or private vehicles – among them secular, traditional, tourists, and over 300,000 Arabs from the eastern part of the city, whose day of rest does not fall on Shabbat at all. The social need to change the reality Obviously, and also from a religious point of view – there is no doubt that running public transportation on Shabbat will greatly reduce the desecration of the Shabbat throughout Jerusalem. I hope that the Minister of Transportation will consider my request and act accordingly.”
But are the words of his comrades acceptable to his members of the municipal coalition? The answer, almost needless to say, is an unequivocal no. In a conversation with “Khal Ha’ir” Deputy Mayor Eliezer Rauchbarger (Degal HaTorah) says that “These are the noises of clowns. Yossi Havilio turns the municipality into a circus. It is not possible. He tries to gather votes from all kinds of actions that have no feasibility and no rationality. I think he is a serious man and I would expect him to deal with serious and real things that have a contribution to the city and not just populist and nonsense matters.”
Do you know in Tel Aviv that such a move is feasible?
“I don’t know enough about the Tel Aviv train route to say if this is possible in Tel Aviv. But it’s important to remember – there is a status quo in the State of Israel, and it doesn’t seem to me that there is anyone who will improve the status quo – not even a government that will very soon finish its duties. In any Case in point, regarding Jerusalem – it’s certainly not feasible. Anyone with sense understands that. It’s just not serious. If he really came up with serious projects, things could be done. Sometimes he does come up with serious things, I’m not saying he doesn’t, the problem is that there 10 times more frivolous offers while it should be the other way around. When you think all day how to fight for another half a vote, that’s what it looks like.”