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Knesset Blocks Debate over Sports Stadium Opposed by Orthodox

May 31, 1979
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Coalition and opposition Knesset members joined forces today to decisively defeat a motion to debate the proposed construction of a new sports stadium north of Jerusalem, a project strenuously opposed-by Orthodox Jews. The motion was submitted by Menachem Porush of the Aguda Israel and Kalman Kahane of the Poale Aguda Israel. Porush warned that the Orthodox community in Jerusalem and “throughout the world” will “not rest” until the project is shelved.

The Orthodox groups object because soccer matches are played on Saturday afternoons which they regard as a desecration. They also complain that the crowds drawn by the games disturb the Sabbath rest of the heavily Orthodox population in the area Mayor Teddy Kollek, of Jerusalem, who supports the stadium, maintains that its construction would diminish Sobbath traffic for the city as a whole. Jerusalem presently has two small sports arenas, one in the “German colony” used by the Hapoel club

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