Tel Aviv told the Israeli Supreme Court that it will not fine businesses that have until now opened on Shabbat as it works to change a city bylaw that bans business from opening on the Jewish Sabbath.

In June, the Supreme Court ordered the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality to enforce a bylaw that bans the city’s businesses from opening on Saturday.

The municipality responded to the court late on Tuesday night, saying that it will not fine businesses that have consistently opened on Saturdays, but will fine new businesses that decide to open on Saturday in contravention of the law. The bylaw also will be enforced against businesses that disturb the public order.

At the same time, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai asked the city’s attorney to create an amendment to the bylaw that “enables the existence of a day of rest alongside each resident’s freedom to enjoy it as he or she sees fit,” Haaretz reported.

The high court justices ruled in June that the municipality and two large supermarket chains violated the municipal bylaw against opening on the Jewish Sabbath. The court suggested the city could change the bylaw to allow businesses to remain open on Saturday.

The owners of the small shops claimed they were losing customers to the chains that could afford to remain open on Saturday and absorb the modest fines levied for their transgression. The justices also suggested that the municipality continuously violated the bylaw in order to collect the fines.

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/09/04/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/tel-aviv-will-change-law-that-bans-businesses-from-opening-on-shabbat#ixzz2dvjx5ftY

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Don't just read the Forward - invest in it. Make a matched gift today.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$120 $180 $360 OTHER AMOUNT