The protests by show a deep feeling for the holiness of the Sabbath, which is important. But the protests must be done in a dignified and proper manner, not violent.
Rabbi Aryeh Stern, the religious Zionist candidate for Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, said that it was important to protest the desecration of the Sabbath, but that any such protests must be conducted in a non-violent manner.
Relatiing to the protests by hareidi-religious Jews outside the Intel plant on Saturday and their insistence that the plant close for Shabbat, Rabbi Stern said in an interview with Israel National News on Sunday that "we must remember that the holiness of Shabbat is our first priority, even in the face of strengthening the Israeli economy." He mentioned the struggle that Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook faced in the early days of Jewish agriculture in the Land of Israel, when he attempted to prevent the milking of cows on Shabbat by Jews. Despite supporting the desire of dairy farmers to use only Jewish labor and his support of the Zionist cause and Jewish nationalism in general, Rabbi Kook ruled that cows owned by Jews should be milked by non-Jews, who are not bound by Sabbath law.
Rabbi Stern said that insisting that the Sabbath be observed was a good idea not just in Jerusalem, but in the rest of the country as well. However, he said, the manner in which religious Jews protest Sabbath desecration was important as well. "The protests by the hareidi community show a deep feeling for the holiness of the Sabbath, which is important. But the protests must be done in a dignified and proper manner, not violently. There are groups whose behavior deteriorates towards violence.
"The protests are important," Rabbi Stern said, but he added that they must be conducted in a "restrained manner." Regarding those who claim that it is difficult to achieve anything in Israeli society today without violent protests, Rabbi Stern says that the protests are just aids for community leaders to lean on when negotiating with the powers that be. Those negotiations take place in other channels and can be aided by protests – but when the protests turn violent, he says, "they should be avoided altogether."
Rabbi Stern summed up his personal philosophy by saying that the job of a chief rabbi was to be aware of the religious situation in his town, and to foster unity among all elements of the public.