The Tel Aviv municipality has reconfirmed its policy of shutting down businesses on Shabbat, apart from the Jaffa area, which has a small Jewish population. The municipality's decision comes after a reappraisal of its Shabbat policy instigated by a request made by the Tel Aviv District Court last October.
In October, the court rejected an appeal submitted by Yehoshua Tzukerman, the owner of a fish store in Neveh Sha'anan who received hundreds of fines, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of shekels, over the past decade due to his establishment's business on Saturdays. Tzukerman asked the court to order the municipality to grant his establishment a work permit for Shabbat, and to annul the fines.
Among other arguments, Tzukerman's attorney contended that the old central bus station area, where the store is located, has changed in character. Today businesses in the area primarily serve foreign workers, refugees and asylum seekers, the complainant argued. The attorney added that the store's Jewish owner has added a Christian partner, who is responsible for the establishment's activity on the Jewish Sabbath.
Judge Sarah Brosh criticized the municipality's policy, and noted that the last time the issue was discussed by the city council it was addressed in a "lethargic, non-systematic" fashion. She said that relevant, up-to-date facts and data regarding demographic changes in the city since 1996, when the Shabbat policy was instituted, were not submitted in this discussion. The judge argued that the municipality's adherence to its policy "is unworthy and unreasonable." Brosh assailed the municipality's decision to continue its policy, and ordered it to stage a full review of the issue, one supported by professional, factual-based, assessments.
Contravening the court's request, the brief compiled by Tel Aviv municipality's deputy director general for operations Ruby Zluf, which served as the basis for the city council's recent decision, does not include precise information pertaining to communities that reside in the old central bus station area. Zluf concludes that there is a Jewish majority in the area, and argues that the demographic turnover that characterizes the population "does not allow a clear population assessment to be made over time; there is no way to make a clear estimate that would enable us to examine needs regarding special permits ... "
Zluf maintains that Jaffa's Arab population is well rooted in its locale, in contrast to the rapid demographic turnover of work migrants in the area of the old central bus station. "The difference does not stem from the existence of 'mixed' populations in the two areas; instead, it derives from the stability and permanence of the [non-Jewish] population in Jaffa, a fact that allows us to assess over a long term the proportion of Jews in the locale, as compared to non-Jews."
Tzukerman accuses the municipality of double standards. "About 99% of our clients are foreign workers," he says. "The store was opened for them, not for Israelis."
In response, the Tel Aviv municipality stated: "In contrast to what is claimed in this report, municipal inspectors monitor all stores that are opened illegally on Shabbat in all parts of the city; there are no double standards at play. The enforcement activity applies to businesses defined as stores, and not restaurant establishments. The city council's decision was reached following a discussion staged in full accord with the court's request. Demographic data were presented in this discussion."
