Minister of Religious Affairs David Azoulay will be forced to leave his hospital bed in the middle of the night in order to reach a Knesset vote on the first reading of a bill to give the interior minister authority to make localities enforce laws on closing businesses on Shabbat, according to public television.
Azoulay was hospitalized and put under anesthesia due to a required medical procedure. Despite requests from the main opposition coalition to grant him "offsetting" in the law on supermarkets, no opposition member is willing to give Azulai a setback. Chairman Yoel Hasson of the Zionist faction faction said that "no one is being offset," and "nothing is personal."