In response, business owners, industrialists, social activists and trade organizations from across the country have joined forces as the Coalition for Shabbat Equality, to protest against major trading chains and owners of shopping and commercial complexes that operate on Shabbat. The coalition is anxiously anticipating Sunday’s debate of MK Zohar’s Law of the Weekly Day of Rest in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, which will decide whether the coalition government should throw its weight behind the bill.
The proposal was initially submitted following a celebrated case in which a kosher restaurant had been fined thousands of dollars by the management of the Sharona food market in Tel Aviv. The fact is that since kosher certification services disqualify out of hand food businesses that stay open on Shabbat, Israeli malls that demand week-long operations actually determine that no kosher food vending business may operate on their grounds. “My bill will bolster business owners who observe Shabbat and employees who want to keep Shabbat but must come to work for fear of being dismissed,” MK Zohar said in a statement.
The Shabbat Equality members argue that “It is absurd that Israel allow those tycoons who control the giants shopping malls to rob us of our Shabbat. In the crazy rat race of our lives there is only one day a week where we can rest and spend time with our families. Don’t take it away. Unfortunately, an absurd situation has been created over the past decade, in which lawbreakers and exploiters of workers’ rights are better able to compete against businesses that obey the law by opening shop on Shabbat. It is a matter of social justice seekers versus social predators, free competition versus those who wish to turn competition into a jungle with no rules and no rights.”