Election day was a perfect example of how much the public would benefit from having Sunday as a day of leisure. After we'd voted, we went to the port in Tel Aviv and it was such a pleasure to see hundreds of families spending quality time together in a relaxed, unpressured way. A scene, which I'm sure, was repeated at different locations throughout the country.

If we israelis are going to be underpaid for our work, which precludes us achieving the high standard of living enjoyed in most other OECD countries, then at least let us have a better quality of life, with a 40 hour work week and 2.5 day weekend.

I wish I'd known that before I voted for them. A central plank of their policy? Really?

This is ridiculous. Unless Friday can be a full workday i.e. 9-5, this won't work. If I have a worker who needs to be home at 2 pm because of shabbat on a friday, is this worker going to start his/her day at 5 am? We have a 5 day work week: Sunday through Thursday. keep it that way!!!

Israelis work long hours

would bring Israel in step with the rest of the world and increase wealth for the country. The only people who will complain will be the Haredi and they get paid not to work anyway The only issue I can see is getting home before sunset on a Friday night, but surely as long as you celebrate the sabbath, a rule thought up before electiricity and the internal combustion engine was invented could be modified.

Exodus 20:8 "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work" It seems that the Haradim aren't the only "Religious" Jews to forget this commandment (one of the ten biggies apparently). Now the "Modern Orthodox" want to get in on the "lets work less for more" idea. I wonder who is going to pay for this? Oh that's right! I am! The middle class small business owner and taxpayer! Yeah!

This is ridiculous. 1. we already have a full five day work week - Sunday through Thursday which is serving us just fine. 2. It will hurt the economy as Friday will have to be a half day work day. I will get less out of my employees so I will have to pay them less, and my business, and everyone else's businesses will suffer. 3. retail stores, shops, cafe's, etc will still have to be open Friday and sunday so these people will still have to work. 4. God said "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work". Its one of the Ten Commandments for crying out loud! Not only do the Haradim conveniently forget this mitzvah by not working at all, not the "Modern Orthodox" only want to work 4.5 days a week. 5, since productivity and profit will be down so will tax revenue for the state. Who will pay for all of our social programs, health care and welfare? The Middle Class as always. This is a direct attack on the Middle Class by another stream of religous Jews, nothing more, nothing less.

Right now Israelis work long hours and are underpaid. The only secular national holiday is Yom Hatzmut the only other days when they get a day off work is religious so usually some restriction on what they are allowed to do. Friday is usually spent preparing for Shabbat so it's not really a day to relax and Saturday they are not going to be relaxing on the beach they will be restricted by Shabbat rules then Sunday it back to work so no real time to relax spend some family time together. Secular & religious alike benefit from this for once we should put people rather than business first.

Hardest part of aliyah for an observant jew. hands down.

Few things in the modern world are less Jewish than the concept of a weekend. Just another attempt to be like the rest of the world. But we're not.. anybody with a Jewish soul would flee from this proposal.

The idea sounds great. As a member of the Kippah Sruga community a 2. 5 day weekend is marvelous. BUT what about those who have to work Sunday to enable a small amount to have the day off. The election day mentioned in # 1 is a good example. Basically government offices, a handful of businesses and schools were closed. Restaurants, retail establishment, public transportation was all running. That means a percentage of the nation will NOT have family day since they are working to serve those who want to play and shop and enjoy. Someone needs to look at the holistic picture. It isn't as easy as it seems.

I think it is attractive in principal, however there are a lot of short comings. Half a day extra off means that Israel's rate of GDP growth will likely fall by 10%, and will also likely put off foreign investors. I do however agree that the average Israeli gets completely screwed by their pay deals. For the amount of hours you put in, your pay is horrible whilst your cost of living is outrageous (groceries are cheaper for me in London - even though most of the food is imported). So, whilst I think 2.5 days is a bad idea, I think pay needs to be looked at or some serious competition needs to be injected into the economy)

It reads..."For six days SHALL you work!" Meaning only 6 days and no more!! As the Sabbath is a day of rest. However, you don't HAVE to work six days, but you SHALL if you want to!! On that note, I believe all of us observant Jews will benefit greatly having Sunday off for family time, plus children who want to play sport can do so as you can't on Shabbat!! I think it's long overdue!!!

I have read many of the comments, and found all of them interesting and incite-full. The full weekend would definitely assist family relationships for tech better. A happy and secure family is important. People's production during the work week would be more productive; knowing that they need to be to keep the employer happy too. Next, this would not shrink the GDP(economy); it would help it grow leaps and bounds. Especially the small to medium size businesses. Not everyone will take that Sunday off; if it means making more money in the market place, for these family excursions. Restaurants, movie houses, retail malls, shopping, travel, hotels, etc. It has proven to work in the USA...why not Israel?

You have to have an economy of scale & your economy of scale is such that you have so much military cost necessary to protect yourselves. Therefore, in order to reduce your costs of competitively providing goods & services to foreign markets, YOU MUST WORK MORE COMPETITIVELY. When you attain stability in Israel, you can relax your work schedule.

#7, Sarah B, not all Shabbat-keeping Jews are Hareidi and certainly don't all get paid not to work! Most people that have a traditional Shabbat really appreciate Friday as a day off to prepare, and not a few would protest the weekend being moved from Friday to Sunday for this reason.

#15 - What part of שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבֹד don't you understand? Its a command: "You will work 6 days". #16 - Since when in the USA is there a 4.5 day work week? In the white collar business world there is a full 5 day work week and you are expected to work well into the evening at your own cost, i.e. NO OVERTIME!

All the comments here against the idea of Sunday off are from religious fools who can't bare to see the seculars having a great time shopping and traveling without any limitations. Most places are closed friday afternoon and saturday day. No other country lives this way. We should have sunday off like the rest of the world.

If Muslims keep Friday as their holy day, why doesn't Israel create a Friday and Saturday weekend? Sunday is the Christian Lord's Day, but Israel has far fewer Christians than Muslims.

world and belive me for to the local microeconomy is the best because the people like, need and want, to relax them selves and to know what life is shoping, movies, bowlig, travelig, restaurants, trips. it works it must be that way, al the advance from working in sundays is nothing compare with te famylies to have activities togeter wen the comerce is open.

Give Friday & Saturday off, so my kids have at least 4 days school, why the elementary schools stop at 12:45, why not like in Europe til 15:30.........In Europe they learn from Monday-Friday from 8:00 -15:30........and NOT 42 kids in one class!

We already have a long weekend, its Friday/Saturday, noone in the World has three free days, Christians have Saturday/Sunday.

counting the working days. In no European country do they have a 4.5 working days week. Since Friday cannot be turned into a full working day, what is this nonsense about??

Sabbath is a resting day. Giving another day to rest just because ultra religious can't go outside on the Sabbath is once again giving care for a small minority. The economy of an entire country should not drastically change just because "those who observe the sabbath can't go shopping properly on the rest of the week". And to #7, why do we need to "get closer to the rest of the world" in this regard? There's nothing wrong with working on Sunday and if anything our stock market gets a big advantage over the rest of the world. Bad news come during the weekend and the first to open are we to sell and cut losses.

Keep the sanctification of Sunday in the diaspera.

As an American that did Aliyah this summer. One of the hardest things for me till today is not having Sundays off. Iam so happy and excited to see that there's a few people in the Knesset that agree with me. I think that the Israelis need a day to shop go on trips / vacations and just spend some family friend time Thank you thank you mr Bennett and mr shalom. Iam on your side!!!!!

Go for a 40 hour work week like the rest of the civilized world. Whatever days you want for the weekend is fine with me, just please shorten the day.