MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni raised a number of issues pertinent to
the shomer Shabbos public during a recent tour of Tel
Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. Rabbi Gafni was the guest of the
Airport Authority.
A number of Ben Gurion Airport employees recently complained
to Rabbi Gafni that they had been compelled to work on
Shabbos in order to keep their jobs. They also noted that
they are given no opportunity to daven during work
hours.
Rabbi Gafni discussed these problems on several occasions
with the Airport Authority, and a meeting of the Interior
Committee of the Knesset was held at his request.
The Airport Authority administration invited Rabbi Gafni to
participate in a special meeting of the Authority offices and
Ben Gurion Airport Project 2000, an ambitious development
project for the airport and currently under construction. The
meeting was attended by Rabbi Gafni; Tzvika Shalom, chairman
of the Council of the Authority Directors; Avi Kostelitz,
Authority director; comptroller of the Authority and chairman
of the Employees Committee; Rabbi Yaakov Guterman, UTJ
economic advisor and Rabbi Moshe Shiffman, Rabbi Gafni's
senior assistant.
A law to cancel purchase tax was proposed at the meeting. If
passed, such a law will significantly lower the consumer
prices of electrical appliances, cosmetics and perfumes. The
Airport Authority prefers that perfume and cosmetics be
excluded from the law, since their inclusion would cause the
Authority to incur heavy losses, following a recent agreement
with the duty free shops, whose main income is from the sale
of cosmetics. In his response, Rabbi Gafni said that he would
take their request into consideration, in order to safeguard
the livelihood of thousands of Authority employees.
At the meeting, Rabbi Gafni cited claims by Torah- observant
workers who are forced to work on Shabbos and not accorded an
opportunity to pray during work hours. He cited the example
of a particular worker who is being tried in a disciplinary
court for the "crime" of observing Shabbos. The Airport
Authority administration promised Rabbi Gafni to protect the
workers' rights and enable them to uphold their religious
beliefs.
