Rabbi Chaim Shlomo Diskin of Kiryat Ata said, on Sunday, that worshippers from many synagogues will come to pray at the construction site of a new shopping center being built in the Haifa suburb if construction continues there next Shabbat. Interviewed on Arutz Sheva's Hebrew journal, the rabbi said he received word just before Shabbat started Friday evening of Sabbath desecration the previous week. He went to the site on Shabbat morning to investigate and found about 60 non-Jewish workers who told them the bosses had approved the work. They added that they would appreciate being told to stop but they were under an August 30th deadline.
No bosses could be found and when poiice coul not be show proof of permission to work on Shabbat, they cleared the premises. Rabbi Diskin noted that the shopping center does not qualify as a "life-and-death" facility that justifies work on Shabbat. He described the community as "more than traditional", and as such, construction during Shabbat hurts them.