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5.1 Draft May 21, 2026

Operation of public transportation on Shabbat

✍️ Submitted by: סולומון ליאור, פסיכותרפיסטית.
🤝 3 supporters
📖 Background
Current law definition / purpose of the law: Preservation of the "status quo" (government decisions based on the status quo prior to the establishment of the state), prohibition on operating public transportation, financial penalties for operating public transportation on Shabbat. Why change it: A law that causes division among various sectors and a feeling of coercion in lifestyle. Purpose of the change: In Israel, there is no constitutional protection and no Basic Laws to protect basic human rights, which are specially protected against violation and set forth in the constitutions of many countries. This includes the absence of Basic Laws protecting freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, or equality before the law. Basic Laws are supposed to express the two fundamental principles of the state: Jewish and democratic, to express core values, to define the authorities and the relations between them, and to enshrine the rights of humans, citizens, and minorities.
📝 Proposal text
1. Free transportation for all on Saturday. 2. Free mobility using public transportation for all citizens, the home front, and access for soldiers, reservists, and security forces, especially at this time.
✅ For (8)
  • + Cessation of the violation of Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and failure to meet the conditions of the limitation clause
  • + Attention to residents' desires: regarding the population's leisure habits and transportation needs, shopping centers open on Saturday, a growing number of Israelis tend to spend Saturdays, August 2022 75% of the Jewish public supports the operation of public transportation on Saturdays
  • + The section on harming the vulnerable populations
  • + Decrease in road accidents
  • + A decrease in the number of vehicles on Israel's roads.
  • + A decrease in the level of traffic in Israel (the number of kilometers driven by a motor vehicle in a given period).
  • + A decrease in high vehicle density due to the need to travel on Saturdays and holidays as well.
  • + Right to accessibility for people with disabilities.
⚠️ Against (1)
  • − Claim of offense to the feelings of the Haredi public
📰 Updates

Public transport operating on Saturday 21.12.23 Walla: Haifa, Eilat, intercity: Tel Aviv-Eilat, Eilat-Be'er Sheva, Kiryat Shmona-Tel Aviv

🗓 May 20, 2026

A solution agreed upon by most of the public, and also by most parts of the political spectrum. This solution was proposed as early as the late 1990s by (then) Member of Knesset Nahum Langental, and subsequently by Members of Knesset Yossi Beilin and Alex Lubotzky. It was later refined and developed within the framework of the constitutional effort led by the Israel Democracy Institute, and was also adopted by Rabbi Yaakov Medan and Prof. Ruth Gavison as part of the document known as the "Gavison-Medan Covenant".

The "status quo," upon which opponents of public transportation on Shabbat rely, is nothing more than a letter sent by David Ben-Gurion in 1947 to Agudat Israel.[2] In this letter, all that was stated regarding Shabbat was that the official day of rest in the state would be Saturday.

There is no “Sabbath Law”; the treatment of the Sabbath is regulated by three sources: the Hours of Work and Rest Law, municipal bylaws, and the Traffic Ordinance. * Basic Law: The Law and Administration Ordinance, 1948, No. 1 of 5708–1948, Section 6A. * The “Hours of Work and Rest Law, 1951,” which prohibits the employment of Jews on the Sabbath. Subsequently, Section 9A was added, stipulating that on the Sabbath, “neither shall a workshop owner work in his workshop, nor an industrial plant owner in his plant, nor a shop owner trade in his shop.” * Traffic Regulations, 5721-1961. * HCJ 4494/06 Herzliya Municipality v. Minister of Transport, June 7, 2016.

Found on the Knesset table: * Bill for the Operation of Public Transportation on Saturday, P/548/23, Date: Tav-Shin-Pe-Tav–2020, MK Oded Forer (Yisrael Beiteinu). Avigdor Liberman, Oded Forer, Evgeny Sova, Sharon Nir, Yulia Malinovsky, Hamad Amar. * The amendment to the law proposed by MKs from Shas will expand the powers of the Minister of Transportation so that she/he can completely ban public transportation on Saturday, including private initiatives.