The religious community in Beit Shemesh is beginning a public campaign against the opening of a McDonalds restaurant in the city on Sabbaths. The director of McDonalds in Israel, former Peace Now activist Omri Padan, has turned down an offer to receive kosher certification in exchange for serving only kosher food and not opening on Sabbath. \"I have my principles,\" he said. The town\'s rabbis have decided that all synagogues will conduct this week\'s Saturday Mussaf services outside the restaurant, in protest of its conducting business on the holy day of rest. Rabbis of all streams, including Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Rabbi Avraham Shapira, and Rabbis David and Yaakov Yosef, back the campaign. The township of Petach Tikvah has begun to take legal action against its local McDonalds for similarly opening on Sabbath.