|
September 17, 2010
So, what time is it in Israel?
Debate over Daylight Savings turns the secular against religious.
ADAM GONN THE MEDIA LINE
“But why on earth do so called ‘open-minded’ and ‘progressive liberals’ always manage to sound like bigoted antisemites?” reads one citizen’s comment on the Israeli news portal YNet.
“The religious Orthodox’s senseless insistence over this matter in Israel is, therefore, a mere show of strength, only to spite the seculars,” reads another. “Because of these people, over 90 percent of the population is suffering.”
As the Jewish New Year approached, so did the debate on when to change the country’s clocks back and end Daylight Savings Time. North America ends Daylight Savings on the first Sunday in November, and the Palestinian Authority does so on the 15th of October. But, in 2005, Israel introduced a new law requiring that Daylight Savings Time end on the day before Yom Kippur, which falls in September this year.
During Yom Kippur, observant Jews fast from sundown to sundown the following day. The proponents of the law claim that it makes the 25 hours of fasting easier and allows those who attend morning services before work to do so without being late. But many secular Israelis oppose ending Daylight Savings early. Some 90,000 Israelis have signed a petition calling on the government to wait to change the clocks back until the rest of the world does so in October or November.
The pressure from secular Israeli activists seems to be working. Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who belongs to the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which introduced the bill, now looks like he might have changed his mind. “This isn’t a religious or political matter,” Yishai said. “We can show understanding.”
Emily Levy-Shochat, chairperson of the Movement of Conservative Judaism in Israel, said that her opposition is not about the changing of the clock but about the politicization of religion.
“My position on this specific issue is less about when the clock should change and whether there is an extra hour,” she said. “It’s about what is happening to the politicization of Judaism in Israel, with political power being used by the ultra-Orthodox to meet their demands. This not only infringes on other streams of Judaism but on the entire state and the entire economy.”
Many of the advocates for changing the rule focus on the alleged economic effects of ending Daylight Savings Time early. They claim that tens of millions of shekels will be lost, as productivity tends to fall during the dark hours of the day.
Other areas that are affected by the switch include an increase in traffic accidents, as visibility is hampered during the hours when people return home from work. Family life can also be affected, as parents tend to stay home with their children when they return home in the dark.
“I’m not sure how accurate some of the estimations are, but we are losing money,” said Dr. Efraim Sadka, an economist at Tel Aviv University. “There are a lot of complications. I would like to be like the rest of the world.”
^TOP
|
