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NEWS
A Clear Majority Of Israelis Oppose Working On Shabbos
By Betzalel Kahn
Despite attempts in various circles, among both irreligious
politicians and politicians belonging to the right-wing
parties, to encourage businesses to open on Shabbos, a recent
poll shows that a decisive majority of the Israeli public,
including a majority of the irreligious public, is opposed to
working on Shabbos.
The results of the poll, which were published on Yediot
Achronot's news station on June 7th, show that 79 percent
of the general public and 69 percent of the irreligious
public are against working on Shabbos.
One third of those questioned responded that they were not
interested in working on Shabbos "because of Shabbos
observance" while 46 percent replied that they didn't want to
work on Shabbos so that they could spend time with their
families.
A very low 16 percent of the irreligious participants said
that it made no difference to them whether or not they worked
on the day of rest, while 5 percent said that they are
interested in working on that day, Rachmono litzlan. A
further statistic is that one fifth of these said the reason
they agree to work on Shabbos is because they afraid of
losing their jobs, while the other four-fifths said they do
it because of the higher wages. Among the traditional (not
fully observant) public, an overwhelming majority of 83
percent said they would not agree to work on Shabbos.
Another result to emerge is that the misguided law proposed
by NRP chairman Zevulun Orlev to make Sunday the second free
day instead of Friday, is unacceptable to a majority of the
public. 45 percent of those questioned said that they prefer
leaving things as they are, with Friday a free day (in
addition to Shabbos), while 37 percent said they preferred
Sunday and 18 percent replied "It makes no difference."
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