Following Naftali Bennett's decision to move the holiday in the education system on Lag BaOmer from Sunday to Monday - due to concerns about desecration of Shabbat due to the lighting of bonfires - parents are threatening to petition the High Court of Justice if the Minister of Education does not reverse the decision.
According to a report on Hadashot 2, upon the end of Shabbat, the forum and the parents' committees contacted Bennett in an attempt to dissuade him from the move - and are threatening to take legal action.
According to the ministry's announcement, the decision was made following a request from Rabbi Lau, who requested to avoid celebrating the holiday on Shabbat evening, because those celebrating could cause desecration.
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However, there are those in the secular public who are taking advantage of the opportunity to attack the Haredi public - and to ask: Why don't the Haredim postpone the celebrations?
The Walla website states: "The Haredi sector has no intention of delaying the lighting of the bonfires by a day. Three years ago, when Lag BaOmer fell on the first day of the week, then-Minister of Education Shai Piron postponed the holiday by a day and students were required to light the bonfires on Sunday evening, instead of on Shabbat night. Even then, in the Haredi sector, most of the bonfires were lit on the original date. The date of the major celebrations on Mount Meron has not changed either.".
The sudden announcement of the postponement of the day off has angered parents and teachers who had planned their activities for that day in advance.
Although the Secretary General of the Teachers' Union, Yaffe Ben-David, announced that she would not oppose the decision, she set conditions for it. "The Teachers' Union's consent to the transition will be subject to the agreement of the teachers' union, the student council, and the parents' union, and if no salary deductions are made for teaching staff who booked Sunday vacations.".
In the forum, the parents' committees, on the other hand, told Hadashot 2 that they strongly oppose the decision. "Lag BaOmer should not be a day off at all, and if it has already been decided - there is no reason in the world to move it three weeks in advance," they said.
The organization 'Working Parents for Change' also responded to the move to the day off. "For years we have been asking to fix the holiday schedule to help families in Israel," the organization's Facebook account wrote. "A change in holidays that will allow parents to spend more time with their children, and at the same time will ease the juggling that working parents do in order to be able to make a living and also be with their children as much as possible.
""For years we were told that vacation days could not be moved," the post reads. "When we asked to move the Isro holiday from Thursday to Friday - it was made clear to us that this was impossible. And now, today, it turns out that everything is possible. The vacation schedule can be changed after it has been set, vacation days can be moved from here to there due to constraints.".
The political establishment, both in the coalition and in the opposition, also expressed outrage over the decision. "This is a scandal, no less," said MK Ayelet Nachmias and Rabin.
MK Yulia Malinovsky of Yisrael Beiteinu also came out against postponing the holiday: "In the decision to postpone the Lag BaOmer holiday, there is a surrender to pressure from various parties. At very short notice, Bennett decided to move the planned day off for children, and in doing so, he is blatantly ignoring the difficulties that parents may face in finding a quick solution for their children during the holiday break. Beyond the lack of consideration for parents, moving vacation days at such short notice also causes significant economic damage to the economy.".
As reported in Haredim10, the Ministry of Education's decision will lead to the collapse of transportation in Meron, due to the shortage of buses and drivers available to the Ministry of Transportation to transport the celebrants to the Rashbi celebration in Meron.
These are hundreds of drivers and buses used to transport students. The student lines are operated by both public transportation operators and private transportation contractors, who are obligated to carry out these transportations according to agreements.
Meanwhile, as reported in Haredim10, the Rebbe of Bayan, who has the right to light the first bonfire in Meron upon the arrival of Lag BaOmer, will delay the lighting this year and it will take place around 1 am.
