Off the wire
• 3rd LD-Writethru-China Focus: Joint document deposit highlights China, U.S. partnership in climate action  • Urgent: Bangladesh executes Islamist party leader Mir Quasem Ali for war crimes  • Myanmar's Panglong Conference produces good outcome: committee member     • New clothing material may make you super "cool"  • 1st LD-Writethru: Xi says China opposes U.S. THAAD deployment in ROK  • China and U.S. open up avenue for sustainable development by ratifying Paris Agreement: UN climate chief  • 1st LD-Writethru-Xinhua Insight: Xi describes new start, new blueprint for global business leaders  • Chinese president's special envoy attends Karimov's funeral  • CTBC Ladies Open third round leading scores  • Xinhua world news summary at 1600 GMT, Sept. 3  
You are here: 　 Home

Train transportation in Israel comes to halt over political quarrel

Xinhua, September 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Trains in vast areas of Israel will come to halt from Saturday to Sunday night amidst a political quarrel between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the transportation minister.

On Friday, Netanyahu ordered to cancel infrastructure works in the train lines that were planned to be carried out during the weekend. His announcement came shortly before the start of the Shabbat, a day in which religious Jews are commanded to halt all work and rest.

Following his statement, Israel Railways announced that due to the suspension of the infrastructure works, all northbound trains from Tel Aviv, Israel's financial capital, will stop working from Saturday until Sunday night.

Additionally, rails from Tel Aviv to Israel's Ben Gurion international airport will be halted until Sunday morning, and some of the southern lines will be working only partially.

The Times of Israel reported that canceled lines are expected to affect about 70,000 passengers, including thousands of soldiers on mandatory military service who go home for the weekends.

Netanyahu's order came after heavy pressures by his ultra-Orthodox partners in his narrow coalitions. They demanded that the state-owned Israel Railways will be conducted its construction works in accordance with the Jewish law and will avoid carrying out works during Shabbat.

The relations between Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Israel Katz were strained over the last weeks, after Katz promoted moves to limit Netanyahu's powers in the secretariat of the Likud party.

Over the weekend, Netanyahu's office accused Katz of "deliberately attempting to create an unnecessary crisis with the ultra-Orthodox to destabilize the government." Endit