Empty bus (illustrative)
Empty bus (illustrative)iStock

The Knesset’s economics committee has been discussing the vexing issue of public transportation on Shabbat, with statistics showing that demand for bus service remains low. The debate was held at the request of MKs Ofir Sofer (Yamina) and Moshe Arbel (Shas).

MK Arbel related that he had appealed to the Transportation Minister, Miri Regev, regarding the operation of the number 42 bus line from Misgav to Karmiel, and that Regev had responded that despite the fact that the demand for certain bus routes to operate on Shabbat has dropped among those living in villages and small towns, the service was continuing to be offered in order to guarantee a continuation of service once or twice a day.

He added that there was no justification for the operation of bus routes if the buses were empty on Shabbat and it was incomprehensible that the Transportation Ministry was not regularly monitoring the situation and the operation of lines it had authorized.

MK Sofer then noted that according to the status quo, only a limited number of bus routes should be authorized, and that a more permissive attitude regarding public transportation on Shabbat constituted a debasement of the value of Shabbat as well as of that of the State of Israel as a Jewish state.

MK Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid) responded that “Shabbat was the first Jewish start-up and the most successful one, and everything should be done to preserve it. However,” he added, “the social reality in Israel is such that a solution … needs to be found that permits public transportation in a limited manner.”

The head of the Noa Tenua organization then claimed that 80% of the population was in favor of public transportation on Shabbat, and the deputy mayor of Tel Aviv added that in Tel Aviv, there was a “huge need” for buses on Shabbat.

However, MK Amit Halevi pointed out that the route from Misgav to Karmiel is not far from being the only route to run almost empty on Shabbat, and that this ends up costing the state around 600 million shekels per year.

MK Moshe Abutbul added that the Transportation Ministry would do better to focus on the many complaints regarding a lack of service for the rest of the week instead of providing a service without a demand for it.

Reporter Eden Yosef noted that the precise wording of the law referring to public transportation on Shabbat indicated that the purpose of the law was to restrict bus service on Shabbat and not to permit it, and that he knew of hundreds of examples of buses running on Shabbat in breach of the law.

Responding on behalf of the Transportation Ministry, the director-general, Ofer Malka, said that the route in question ran to the cemetery and that it was impossible to predict demand. He also claimed that the operation of the route did not violate the status quo, but that he was willing to reexamine the issue.

Summarizing the meeting as it closed, MK Yinon Azoulay, who was chairing the meeting, stated that it had become apparent that the Transportation Ministry’s position was that the route from Misgav to Karmiel should not be operating on Shabbat, and the committee members would be demanding a written confirmation of this, along with a list of routes that have been granted permission to operate on Shabbat. He added that the committee was not persuaded that the law allowed the Ministry to permit the operation of routes that were not running at the time the pertinent legislation was passed, and that the current position of the Ministry therefore seemed to be in contravention of the law.

“The committee now instructs the Transportation Ministry to rectify this situation, and to reexamine the permits given for operation of bus lines when the permits were not given in accordance with the intention behind the legislation, whether alternatives such as shared taxis exist, and so forth. The Ministry should also be revisiting the situation on a regular basis, bearing in mind that permits for specific bus routes on Shabbat are not granted on a permanent basis. Shabbat is a value of supreme importance,” Azoulay concluded.