Last update - 00:00 16/05/2007
Israeli-Arab Acre businesses petition court to allow work on Shabbat
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent
Israeli- Arab business owners from Acre filed a petition Wednesday to the High Court of Justice, demanding that they be allowed to keep their businesses open on Shabbat.
The petition, signed by eight Christian and Muslim businessmen through the Adalah organization, rejects a clause in one of the city's bylaws revised five years ago, which maintains that Saturday will mark a day of rest for Arab residents of Acre living in neighborhoods with a Jewish majority.
The bylaw puts the business owners in a difficult position: either to work on their religion's day of rest, when their children are off from school, or to take off two days a week in order to be with their children- which would harm their business' income.
The businesses are located on streets with a mixed amount of religions, although some are more than 70 percent Arab.
In the petition, the business owners maintain that Acre is a mixed city, with the highest rate of Arabs residing there than in any other mixed city. There are more than 12,000 Arab residents, which makes up 27 percent of the city's residents.
The bylaws in other mixed cities- such as Ramle, Lod, and Tel Aviv-Yafo- do not require the Arab population to close their businesses on Shabbat or other Israeli holidays.