Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) experienced both extreme highs and lows Thursday as Druze leaders suggested Katz be awarded the Israel Prize and leftist protestors demonstrated outside of his home.
The Druze Zionist Council, led by Atta Farhat, turned to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu asking him to please award Katz the prestigious prize, in recognition and appreciation for the "transportation revolution" Katz led in recent years.
In their application, Channel Ten reported, the Council reasoned that during his tenure as transportation minister, Katz "connected the periphery to the center with modern interchanges, widened roads and established new railway stations."
The Council also credited Katz for initiating the "open skies policy" which will bring about "reduced air fares," and for expanding the ports of Haifa and Ashdod.
"The land of Israel has never known a revolution in the transportation field of this scale," the Council praised.
However, not everyone in Israel was feeling the Druze Zionist Council's love for Katz. Demonstrators in favor of public transportation on Shabbat and religious holidays held a fiery protest outside of the Minister's home on Thursday.
The drama began earlier this week when someone on Facebook sarcastically criticized Katz for doing nothing to change current policy and provide buses and trains on Shabbat.
Katz, who made clear Wednesday that there would be no public transportation on Shabbat, responded that the poster was a "leftist hypocrite" and should turn to Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog for a policy change.
Among the dozens of demonstrators outside of Katz's home was MK Tamar Zanberg (Meretz) who said "this protest is not a matter of Right and Left, nor of church and state, but of social and environmental justice."
"Public transportation is disabled two months out of every year...This protest will continue to happen every Saturday to come and on all future holidays until the situation changes."