Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli (Labor) has announced that due to the coalition's fragile state, she will not advance her plans to approve public transportation on Shabbat (Sabbath) at the moment.
"Public transportation on Shabbat will have to wait a bit longer," Michaeli told Democrat TV. "It is more important that this government survive. But we have not given up - we are working on it."
"There was a commitment to make 100% effort. We knew what kind of government we were joining. We knew it ahead of time."
She added, "I really am committed to this - there needs to be public transportation in Israel every day of the week. I believe that it is possible to reach agreements on this. Right now the situation of the coalition is that it is not completely available for this."
In an interview with Yediot Aharonot last weekend, Michaeli said that she had prevented the Carmelit in Haifa from operating on Shabbat, due to the fragile state of the coalition and the Yamina party's opposition to public transportation on Shabbat.