Gas station convenience stores to be excluded from Supermarkets Bill
Heads of coalition parties agree to exclude gas station convenience stores from Supermarkets Bill's purview, contrary to Haredi demands; bill to go up to 2nd, 3rd reading votes Monday; status of Eilat in bill still undecided; Minister Regev: Once decision is made, we all have to follow. That's what being in coalition means.
Heads of the coalition parties concurred Sunday to exclude gas station convenience stores from the purview of the Supermarkets Bill, sponsored by Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, and they will thus be able to continue operating on Shabbat even if the bill is passed, contrary to the Haredi parties' position.
The Supermarkets Bill stipulates that local authorities will be able to permit commerce within their grounds during Shabbat only with prior consent from the interior minister.
A motion to exclude Eilat from the law's purview, meanwhile, is still under contention with the heads of the coalition's Haredi parties.
A source close to the prime minister said the exclusion of convenience store came directly from the premier himself. "He insisted on removing gas station convenience stores, and as a result the bill will be passed," the source said.
Despite the confidence of the statement, however, the coalition remains unsure whether it can cultivate the requisite majority for Monday's vote, with intra-coalition opposition to the bill.
Yisrael Beytenu opposes it, and four of its MKs will be voting with the opposition. The fifth MK, Minister of Immigrant Absorption Sofa Landver, cannot vote against the coalition or she will be summarily fired, and will therefore not be present during the vote.
In addition, MK Sharren Haskel (Likud) also announced she intended to vote against the bill—which got her into hot water with her compatriots who demanded she be ousted from the party.
The ailing MK David Azulai (Shas), on the other hand, is expected to attend the vote despite his doctors' recommendations.
The issue of gas station convenience stores, which like some supermarkets also operate on weekends, was an issue of significant contention when the bill was promulgated. Despite the fact it initially appeared they would be excluded from the law, the Knesset's Internal Affairs Committee approved the original drafting of the bill—following pressures from Haredi parties—that included them.
In the past week, however, and in effort to make the law more palatable for swing-vote MKs, the text was once again changed to exclude them.
'We may not all love the bill, but that's the coalition'
Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev commented in a Ynet studio interview Sunday on the Supermarkets Bill and MK Haskel's announcement that she would oppose it. "I think Sharren was mistaken. She was wrong because at the end of the day she was not elected personally. She was elected on the Likud ticket," the minister explained.
"Considering the fact she was elected in such a way, when there's a law that important to the coalition—with all due respect to her personal stance—we have to toe the party line. It's impossible for every MK to bring his own agenda to the table and vote against the coalition, because that will bring about the Likud party's dissolution," Regev cautioned.
"I don't follow all of the Torah's edicts," the minister admitted. "I drive on Shabbat. But I nevertheless don't want it to become just another workday. I don't want the income tax offices to be open, or the HMO to be open."
Asked about people living in municipalities such as Tel Aviv or Ramat Gan whose lifestyles are congruent with stores remaining open on Shabbat, Regev said, "It's fine that that's what they want. That's what the regulatory authority is for. We'll all still have our leisure open to us, and some of the stores will be as well, but to have all the supermarkets open, and the income tax, and the licensing office—I think that's wrong. If you go to Berlin, London or Paris, you know you won't be shopping on Sundays."
For accuracy's sake, many European cities allow shopping on Sundays, albeit in limited hours.
Regev was then confronted with the accusation that the law is hypocritical for enforcing the Haredi way of life on communities where not a single Haredi resides, and that the law was merely intended to placate Interior Minister Deri.
"It's not a political law," Regev objected. "Our identity as a Jewish state is being threatened, and our role is to make sure people won't be forced to work on Shabbat. It shouldn't be up to the Knesset anyway, it should be left to the regulatory authority. We all know Aryeh Deri. He knows what kind of life we lead here. He understands society."
The minister was then asked to respond to comments made by members of her own party, such as MKs Yariv Levin and Ofir Akunis, who scoffed at the law's importance. "In the coalition, as in democracy, the majority decides. In the coalition what's important is our ability to hold the coalition together by respecting one another's stances.
Once a decision had been made to follow Shas's lead on the Supermarkets Bill, that's what we have to do. Not all of us love this bill, but we're all part of the coalition," Regev concluded.
