"We have no recourse but to appeal to gedolei haTorah for their counsel and blessing for a mass protest in the city streets to cry out for the sake of Shabbos and protest the increasing chillul Shabbos in the Holy City of Yerushalayim." This was the summing up of rabbonim and public figures aggrieved by the desecrated pride of Shabbos, at the emergency meeting held in the wake of the considerable spread of chillul Shabbos in the city.
In these past weeks there has been a marked upswing of Shabbos desecration in the Jerusalem. Several eateries have opened their doors with similar openings of many businesses, despite the fact that they are operating in total violation of the Municipal Bylaws explicitly forbidding this. They blithely violate the law, with no one making a protesting peep. There is nothing vague about this ordinance but those responsible for enforcing it adequately apparently do not see a call for doing so. "Against any other similar outright flouting of a law major steps would surely have long been taken with the necessary means and measures. But when the breach involves the desecration of Shabbos, sadly enough there is no reaction to the breaking of the law and it's "business as usual" [24/7], with pure equanimity," declared the rabbonim and public figures active in this area.
According to them, the defiance of the holiness of Shabbos in Yerushalayim has reached proportions calling for the people to man the barricades and shout a pained and bitter outcry for the sake of Shabbos. "If we don't act today and rend the heavens at the travesty, it won't be long before Jerusalem will look like Tel Aviv. This seems to be the direction of things and this is the agenda of those activities made to increase chillul Shabbos in the city. Therefore, it is obvious that we must act now to arrest the decline before it is too late."
