Egged secretly begins running bus line on Shabbat

Nobody is forcing the Haredim to ride a bus on Shabbat; its time that they stop trying to force the rest of us to live their way.

if they are not happy with it.Then they can start their own kosher bus company,or if they are unable to do it,they could go walking from Beer sheva to Tel Aviv.

All of us know very well that those people are no more than a group of terrorists completely irrational and extremist. (Throwing rocks to others is being a terrorist).More than that? I simply do not understand how the Israeli government can be so hypocrite. The public transport should be a citizen right and the government should protect and secure that right. People should have the right to go out in their free day to do whatever they feel to, without the need to own a car or paying crazy expensive taxi services, or taking the risk and going on those arab bus taxies. I am ashamed! And now that Egged is not ?casher? anymore! I want to see the orthodox on the buses!

How about this: The religious sector complains about the Egged buses on Shabbat, which are obviously intended for the secular sector. The secular sector complains about the Egged 'mehadrin' (separated) buses, which are obviously intended for the religious sector. Now how about this: we both drop our protests. Let Egged run buses on Shabbat, and let Egged run separated buses. This way, we both win one piece of the battle and lose another, and it will not impact either side negatively!

Good for Egged! ALL buses should run throughout Shabbat. It is absurd that the religious minority should dictate to the majority who choose to live a secular lifestyle. Those without cars are having their civil rights violated by the ban on public transportation on Shabbat. All buses and trains should run on Shabbat, period. If you don't want to ride the bus on Shabbat, great! Stay home. However, YOUR views should not dictate to the rest of us.

The bus drivers and passengers will not be killed. Israel is still one step ahead of Talibanistan. One step ...

To sum up what you just said, allowing busses to operate before the end of Shabbat will lead to mass murder? The power isn't cut on Shabbat and neither is the cable and lo and behold the earth still stands. I can understand you being upset and expressing your opinion but I think that you are slightly overexaggerating.

Do you support the Islamic extremists who use the same arguments you do to keep women downtrodden through enforcement of sharia?

As #4 said, nothing new here. It's happening now under Metropolin, and it was already practice when Egged ran these lines. The reason nobody mentions this, is that us decent, working, secular folks don't want to lose this nice little favor the(semi)public bus companies are doing to us. So let's just hope this innocent little case of investigative journalism didn't wake up some bearded hotheads over in mea sharim and bnei barak. And, you know- but i'm just daydreaming here - maybe one day decent very hard-working israelis, still unable to afford private transport, can hop on a bus to visit their lonely, ailing auntie on their free shabbat. Since a clear majority of the jews in Israel isn't observant, one would expect the public institutions to serve the interests of the people. With all due respect to religious minority of course, nobody would force a good and honest religious person to drive or ride a bus on the sabbath. That's just this cute little concept called tolerance.

Why 'secular' people always tout "Rights" when it comes to doing whatever their emotional whims say, tossing aside ancient traditions, sacred concepts or issues that many hold dear to decry their own 'rights'??? "Rights" are bestowed human to human and out of respect: no human being is born with 'rights'...it is a human concept. Do people have the right to violate the feelings of masses of other people just out of selfishness? What if the secular swells decide its 'their right' to murder, steal, take peoples homes away because they're well off??? Is that gonna be okay? Its the things the secular call 'small, absurd' practices that are the very foundation for more serious issues: violate the small things in people's lives and it paves the way to the big things. Yeah, yeah, I know:"pot is a gateway drug?" Answer: yeah, it is: most people who smoke pot do other drugs, do the math: its all on paper. "Secular" philosophies have led to Nazis, communism, etc; 127 million murders.

I lived in Be'er Sheva in 200-2001 and I remember always seeing buses flying by for TA like 2 minutes before Shabbat. I always thought it a bit silly. Why does Haaretz say "Secretly"? It seems pretty out in the open. Our goal, as observant Jews, should be to reduce the DEMAND for such bus lines.

Because there is no public transport on the sabbath a lot of Israelis who otherwise would not have a car do own one. There by putting more Co2 into the atmosphere polluting the air of Israel, and therefore the planet. I think that doing harm to what religious people regard as God's creation. Is a far greater sin than running public transport on the sabbath. As a mere humble agnostic who cannot afford a car. So I'm forced to spend Saturday at home, I think I have a point.

...842 and 841 to the north have always started operating at shortly past 15:00 on shabbat??????????

I wish they would do it more and do it openly. Majority of Israelis are sick and tired of religious dictate.

I ask myself how long this is still acceptable. Those ultra orthodox people expect to be treated with tolerance and respect, but they have zero tolerance toward secular people. They completely forget that out there are people which want to live their life, regardless religious rules. I feel myself cut in my freedom if I have no option of using public transportation on the weekends. So I am asking all, when we wake up and affront those people, showing them that the majority of this population wants a normal life which is appropriate to the 21st century. Not enough that a large amount of ultra orthodox are living on social benefits which we are pay with our taxes, no, they want to control all areas in daily life. People seem to forget that Israel is a demographic time bomb, not only the matter that we need to be concerned about loosing the Jewish majority, those people will have one day the majority in vote for elections-good night Israel!!!

what is so new about this? Eilat - TLV buses have been running for years on shabat. local buses in eilat and haifa too.

Israel is a Jewish nation which has minimal standards for preserving certain degrees of shabbat observance. The country does not prevent you from doing almost anything you want to do on Shabbat. You can drive your own car or bike or take a cab, but when it comes to the larger scale operation of public/governmental services, the lines have been historically drawn in respect of / appreciation for that unique gift of Shabbat! Egged has backpeddled in error. If I were a goy living in Israel, I would certainly have to respect the land's unique culture/heritage & majority's customs. Worry more about yourself than the gentiles in Israel who seem to have more respect for Jewish traditions than many Jews. Enjoy your take on Jewish life and'read'it any way you want- the emes is we are here because of a contract on a mountain which impacts what we eat, dress, pray, work,rest(recharge)& think.If we choose not to read &understand the fine print we will be run over in more ways than you can see.

As far back as 1979, when I worked on a project in Kiryat Shmona, Buses for KS left the Tel-Aviv Central Bus Station from about an hour before tze'et haShabat. At the time, it was a 4-hour-plus trip--in the summer, leaving after Shabat means you arrive in KS after midnight. Buses also left Kiryat Shmona about the same time for students studying in the Tel-Aviv area with morning classes on Sundays. How about a little consideration for those who actually work and study practical professions?

As long as you are getting so impassioned about this, how about the rights of those (Jewish and gentile) who don't have the same read on the sabbath as you? What gives you the right to deny them transportation?

But Egged also runs extremely successful haredi-only services, at special, lower than normal prices. So miracle of miracles, it'll turn out that it's not Egged but Metropolin that runs the before-Shabbat's-out buses and the haredi buses will continue to be heavily used by those critical rabbis and their followers, just as before.

It is a shame there are those in Egged management who choose to disregard the separation between the sabbath and the rest of the week. DO THE EXTRA PROFITS DRIVE MANAGMENT OFF THE ROAD OF COMMON SENSE IN THE JEWISH STATE? WHILE THE WORLD CONDEMNS ISRAEL FOR SURVIVING, THE LEFTISTS IN ISRAEL SEEK TO DESTROY HER INTERNALLY. Already with unclear windows to reality, let us see how Egged acts at this critical intersection!

What about the feelings and rights of the rest of the country? How's it affecting them? What're they all doing, sleeping outside the bus station every shabbat? Does it disturb the sanctitiy of Shabbat? Just like rioting outside car parks or office blocks....on Shabbat....but that's OK.

It is about time.