MK Miki Zohar
MK Miki ZoharPhoto: Screenshot

Rabbis, ministers, Knesset members and other public figures gathered Sunday evening in Jerusalem to raise Shabbat to the top of the public agenda, in the ‘Strengthening Sabbath’ conference at the initiative of the Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Dov Kalmanovitz.

MK Miki Zohar (Likud), who has caused a stir in recent days following his proposed "Shabbat Law" bill, told the conference that companies are threatening him to abandon the bill.

“People are saying, 'This is a religious law’, but they are wrong. This is a Jewish law. They tell me that I’ll come under fire for this, and I said to myself I'm sure I will but there will be others who will stand beside me. This issue is very problematic, and if I made it into the Knesset just to highlight the issue , then I’ve done my part,” said Zohar.

"When we wanted to establish the country, Ben-Gurion quoted the Bible saying that it is our right to be  in our country,” said Zohar adding, “Shabbat was conceived the Bible, otherwise we would not have the concept of a week, yet we as the Jewish people choose to ignore that testimony."

Zohar continued, “Some say, ‘let’s behave like the rest of the world ', but the rest of the world rests for one day out of the week and only we do not. Why is it that the State of Israel, especially Tel Aviv, are trying to undermine this topic. The State of Israel is democratic and Israeli and I want to strengthen the Jewishness of the state. We are not forcing anybody anything in their own home, but we cannot give up our Jewishness. If we give it up, we abduct it. Mark my words.”

Zohar asked, '' Why must a business owner open his trade to compete against his neighbor who is breaking the law? They want to rest and be with their families. There are greed campaigns from large companies that harm law and attack and threaten me to abandon this bill him, and I say- even greed harmed the Jews.”