The public transportation saga on Lag BaOmer: After countless discussions, appeals to professional bodies, and requests to cancel Education Minister Naftali Bennett's decision to postpone the Lag BaOmer holiday in schools from Sunday to Monday - in order to solve the public transportation problem on Lag BaOmer, the United Torah Judaism faction turned to the Minister of Transportation this evening (Monday) as a last resort - to expand the range of travel hours to Meron and back.
This is to allow tens of thousands of disappointed people who will not be able to reach Meron in the early hours of the day to do so in the evening.
As reported in Haredim 10, the Minister of Education responded to the request of Chief Rabbi Grat Lau to postpone the Lag BaOmer holiday from Sunday to Monday, in order to prevent Israeli children from desecrating Shabbat when lighting bonfires.
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As a result of this decision, the public transportation system will lack hundreds of buses, which will be needed to transport students. It is estimated that approximately 75,000 people will be forced to stay in their homes in the center of the country and will not be able to go to Meron.
The United Torah Judaism faction was asked about the issue at the weekly faction meeting held today in the Knesset. Various ideas were raised - and in the end, it was decided that the faction would submit an uncompromising demand to the Minister of Transportation, that he approve the extension of the operating hours of the service lines to Meron and back.
In a letter sent by the faction's chairman, MK Menachem Eliezer Mozes, on behalf of the faction and with the consent of its members, it was written: "As is known, the Minister of Education decided that on Sunday, the 18th of Iyar, Lag BaOmer this year, regular classes will be held and the vacation planned for that day will be postponed. The meaning of the decision: a severe and unprecedented shortage of hundreds of buses, which were supposed to provide a solution for the hundreds of thousands of immigrants to Meron. The buses will be diverted to transporting students.
""At the same time, the Ministry of Transportation determined that service on Sunday, Lag BaOmer, from the center of the country towards Meron will end at 4:00 PM, and service returning from Meron to the center of the country will end at 10:00 PM.".
""We hereby demand that, as an alternative response, the extension of the operation of public transportation service to Meron until 8:00 PM and back from Meron throughout the night between Sunday and Monday be approved.".
Public transportation during these hours will allow all those tens of thousands, disappointed, who will not be able to arrive on the morning of Lag BaOmer to Meron, to arrive on the evening of the day and pray there.
As representatives of the Haredi public, we have been inundated in recent weeks, since the decision was made to postpone the vacation, and from the moment the Ministry of Transportation announced that it would not be able to satisfy the full demand of all those wishing to travel, with angry, resentful, and incomprehensible requests from the general public.
""The concern is great. According to calculations we have made, there may be a situation in which about 75,000 people who want to go to Meron will not be able to do so due to the lack of public transportation.".
Our duty, as representatives, is to provide the response and enable anyone who wishes to do so to succeed and ascend to Meron, even at the cost of changing original plans. Therefore, as stated, we ask that you intervene in the matter immediately and respond to our demand for extending service hours.
""We hope that the Lag BaOmer events will end successfully, God willing. But if not, we would like to come clean to the public that sent us and know that we did everything to prevent a traffic collapse.".
