Absolute nonsense. These phones are govt property and no one has the right to touch them. The ultra orthodox think they own this country and they can do what they like. Prosecute them as they are interfering with the right for others to use them.

WHO AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS THE ARABS OR THE JEWS READ THIS Jerusalem ‘payphone war’ heats up Growing phenomenon in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods: Payphones locked by chains on weekends and holidays 'to prevent Sabbath desecration by Christians’ .

actually as of today the phones are no longer government property they are private property. the orthodox need to understand the issue of "Pikuach Nefesh" is the reason they should leave the phones alone.

1. It is not prohibited for a Christian to use a phone on Shabbat. 2. It is prohibited for a Jew (Atzmon) to break the locks each Shabbat. 3. The Ultra-Orthodox are complaining about not having money, yet they have money to buy expensive locks every week in order to cause a fellow Jew to desecrate Shabbat so that a Christian will not have permitted access to a phone. Huh???

what christians come to mea shearim to use a phone? are there no phones anywhere else in the city? christians don't have cellphones? right.. anyone knows that doing something like that on shabbat in that neighborhood will get rocks thrown at you, at minimum. no one in their right mind would or could use a phone in the ultra orthodox neighborhood on shabbat, especially for anything more than a minute. i don't believe the phones are locked up for that reason. bogus story.

The ultra-Orthodox Jews who are busy imposing their beliefs on Christians in Jerusalem are either non- and anti-Zionists -- in other words, your "friends"! Kind of makes you wonder.

(I hit the send button too soon on the first message.) When did it become incumbant upon us to make sure Christians observe Shabbat? In fact, I'd alwasy understood that it was _prohibited_ for non-Jews to keep Shabbat. There's also the question of whether a private citizen has a right to block access to the property of another, whether the phones belong to the government or to a private company.

and where they raise their children. They are not locking phones all over Israel, only in their neighborhood. They would like to enjoy Shabbos. With expelled Jews living in tents how can anyone come and desecrate Shabbos in an Orthodox neighborhood by cutting off locks? If the lock cutter wants to desecrate Shabbos so bad, let him carry food to the expelled Jews living in tents.

The statement below is to be made with love. God made the Shabbat for man, not man for the Shabbat. God wants you to rest on that day and enjoy Him and worship Him. The Shabbat can be made into a day of bondage by man. Enjoy God.