Haredi Politician Unwittingly Votes To Support Shabbat Public Transport In Ramat Gan

RAMAT GAN (VINnews) — A Haredi councilman from the Ramat Gan city council mistakenly voted to approve public transport on Shabbat, thinking that he was only voting on the coming year’s budget.

David Menachem, a deputy mayor of Ramat Gan and head of the Shas faction in the city unwittingly voted to allow the controversial ‘Sababus’ to run on Shabbat in Ramat Gan. Menachem’s vote would not have changed the outcome however since the bill to allow Shabbat transport passed with an overwhelming majority of 15 to 5.

The new service, which is costing the local municipality 2.5 million NIS since it is illegal to demand payment for Shabbat transport, will involve shuttle buses running on central streets in the city starting from the coming Shabbat, the first in 2020.

Menachem had voted twice for what he thought was the budget, unaware that the vote also included the transportation bill. He later reiterated his opposition to Shabbat transportation, stating that “It is perfectly clear, and you don’t need to be a genius to know that I am against public transportation on Shabbat and I am against funding it,”

However opposition members sharply criticized Menachem for lending his support to Shabbat transport despite the unanimous condemnation of such transport by all religious parties in Israel.

Last October, Zohar Yesharim,  a Shas representative on the Ramat Gan city council, resigned from the coalition in protest over the plans to operate the Sababus line on Shabbat.