High Court to rule today whether Tel Aviv supermarkets may be open on Shabbat
Attempt by association of grocery stores to withdraw petition fails
A ruling Thursday by the High Court of Justice is expected to end the long-running saga of groceries in Tel Aviv opening on Shabbat.
For more than a decade, the Association of Tradesmen and Independent Business Owners has fought a campaign to force large grocery chains such as AM:PM and others to close on Shabbat because opening contravened the law and represented unfair competition for independent stores that elect to close on the Sabbath.
In 2013, the High Court ruled in favor of a petition by the association based on the prohibitions in Tel Aviv municipal law, but the Tel Aviv Municipal Council then approved a municipal bylaw in 2014 that specifically allowed 165 grocery stores around the city to open on Shabbat.
However, the bylaw never received the required approval of an interior minister and, eventually, the Tel Aviv Municipal Council petitioned the High Court to force the government to make a decision on its bylaw.
When the government failed to make a decision, the court ruled in April that the bylaw must be allowed to go into effect.
The Association of Tradesmen and Independent Business Owners’ chairman, Yair Korach, told The Jerusalem Post his organization felt that due to the actions of the court and the Attorney-General’s Office they had not received a fair hearing and sought to withdraw their petition so that the status quo would remain.
Korach cited several technical requests made by the association’s legal representation, all of which had been rejected, including a request that the case be based broadly on all relevant laws pertaining to work on Shabbat as opposed to the insistence of the attorney-general that it be based only on a specific clause of the Law for Hours of Work and Rest.
Korach also noted that former justice Elyakim Rubenstein, who ruled in the minority against the Tel Aviv Municipality in April, was taken off the expanded panel whose ruling is expected on Thursday.
“We were dealt blow after blow, so it appears to us that there is nothing for us in the High Court, so we THE HIGH Court of Justice is expected to rule today that a bylaw that permits 165 Tel Aviv groceries to open on Shabbat must be allowed to go into effect. sought to withdraw the petition,” because no decision would be better now than a negative one, he said.
The association’s attorneys, however, refused to do so, saying that, although they understood the frustrations, it would be damaging and unprofessional to withdraw the petition at such a late stage.
Korach and the association argue that by opening on Shabbat when other businesses seek to take advantage of their day of rest, large chains are unfairly taking business away from smaller independent outlets.
“They are stealing the income of grocery stores that observe the law,” he said, referring to the Law for Hours of Work and Rest, which prohibits requiring an employee to work on the Sabbath.
In response to what appears to be a likely ruling by the High Court upholding its previous decision that the Tel Aviv bylaw go into effect, a bill proposed by United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni to circumvent the decision has been put on the agenda of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday.
In response, Kulanu MK Rachel Azaria has had her bill, which would regulate commercial activity on Shabbat while at the same time formally permit the operation of leisure and recreational institutions and some public transport on the Sabbath, added to the committee’s agenda.