The Aguda Israel threatened to quit Premier Menachem Begin’s coalition government today unless his promise to ban El Al flights on the Sabbath is fulfilled. The threat was made by the Aguda’s Knesset faction after the Supreme Court ruled Monday that the government could not impose the Sabbath ban without approval by the Knesset’s Finance Committee.
The Finance Committee must consider the ban in light of the law which requires government-owned corporations to operate according to sound economic principles. Aguda MK Shlomo Lorincz, who chairs the committee, said he did not permit it to discuss the issue because it was clear beforehand that the ban would not be “economical.” The Aguda insists that the ban must be implemented on religious and moral grounds.
Avraham Shapiro, chairman of the coalition Knesset faction, said the Aguda would remain in the government only if all coalition partners endorsed the Sabbath ban and made it clear they were not. succumbing to religious pressures. Although Begin strongly supports the ban, at least some members of Likud’s Liberal Party wing are known to oppose it.
It is also bitterly opposed by El Al employes. Several thousand workers demonstrated at Ben Gurion Airport today against the government’s decision to impose the ban. The workers, representing El Al, the Airport Authority and the Civil Aviation Administration threatened to shut down Ben Gurion Airport to all carriers on the Sabbath if El Al is grounded. Such action would affect foreign airlines serving Israel.
The special ministerial committee set up by the Cabinet to implement the ban heard from El Al management today. The airline’s directors stressed the severe economic burdens the Sabbath ban would impose on the financially troubled carrier. They said the losses would exceed the $40 million projected by a government-appointed committee which studied the issue.
According to the El Al management, suspension of Sabbath service would cost at least $45 million annually, not including indirect losses to competing airlines which would take over part of El Al’s weekday traffic as well.
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.
