After new Labor leader Avi Gabbay declared his support for public transport on Shabbat, Health Minister Yaakov Litzman attacked him in the Hamodia newspaper for the "serious attack on the Jewish nation's holy day and the flagrant violation of the status quo maintained in Israel over the years."
However his UTJ compatriot Moshe Gafni chose to defend Gabbay and suggested that his statements about public transport on Shabbat were merely election slogans, since "from my acquaintance with Gabbay, he is a traditional person. We know that statements made during elections in anti-religious media outlets are not really relevant."