Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) met with representatives of the haredi parties on Thursday to discuss their demand that rail workers cease operations on Shabbat. (Israel Railways, Israel's national train service, is a government-owned corporation.)
He explained that the only way to stop the planned work on the railway infrastructure on Shabbat is through an express order from the Labour Minister, or a governmental decision to change the way Israel Railways is run, backed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
In the past several days, haredi MKs have joined ranks in order to stop government sanctioned desecration of Shabbat, including railway construction and repairs on Saturday, which violate the religious laws of Shabbat.
On Thursday afternoon, the Knesset Shas party chairman, MK Yoav Ben Tzur, sent a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, asking him to keep his promise and work to prevent the works planned for Shabbat.
As of Thursday evening, it seems that the works will continue on Shabbat as scheduled, despite the MKs efforts to prevent it.