Knesset member Shlomo Lorinez of Agudat Israel lodged a formal complaint in the Knesset today against the operation on the Sabbath of a recently completed cable car connection from the Dead Sea shore to the top of the ancient Jewish fortress of Masada. Demanding a debate on the issue, he exclaimed, “The heroes of Masada have fallen in vain!” Lorincz continued: “The defenders of Masada died because they refused to give up their rights to practise their religion. What the Roman legions failed to do two thousand years ago, has now been achieved by the Israelis. In reply to his charges, Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon stated that the matter was entirely out of the government’s control. The cableway, he said, had been built and was being run by a foreign investor’s company under an irrevocable contract with the National Parks Authority, an independent body under the law. The Parks Authority, he continued, had leased the site from the National Lands Administration for 49 years, and nothing could be legally done before the year 2018. Allon added that if the government would interfere, it would be guilty of breach of contract, and therefore, he concluded, it would be pointless to debate the motion or refer it to a committee for study.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
