Israel to Gain a Weekend??

We love our Sundays here as Israelis are all at work..... Copyright 2011 International Herald Tribune All Rights Reserved

July 8, 2011 Friday

Choosing an extra day of rest; Whether Israel takes off Friday or Sunday could come down to economics

BY ETHAN BRONNER

JERUSALEM

There is a bar-stool analysis of the Israeli-Arab conflict positing that tensions would subside significantly if the entire region would adopt a two-day weekend instead of the day-and-a-half many countries, including Israel, have lived with for decades. These people, the thinking goes, need a little more downtime.That idea was hinted at in an editorial cartoon on Wednesday in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz showing President Bashar al-Assad of Syria atop a tank aimed at his own protesting citizens and one of his generals suggesting to him, ''Maybe we'll switch to a short workweek too?'' The reference was to a robust debate in Israel about whether to move to a full two-day weekend and, if so, whether the second day off (apart from Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath) should be Friday or Sunday.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has established a committee to examine the options and appointed his chief economist, Eugene Kandel, as its chairman, suggesting where he believes the most important issue lies: economic productivity. Pretty much the entire Western world observes Saturday and Sunday as its weekend, and many in Israel would like to align its schedule with that of the West. They think it makes economic sense in a global economy, and they like the idea of adopting Western practices to make a point about the nature of their society.But, like everything in Israel, this discussion has numerous layers.With nearly a fifth of the population Muslim Arab, a natural choice for the second day off would be Friday, the Islamic holy day. That is the argument of the Arab members of Parliament.''Israel is in the Middle East, not Europe,'' Taleb al-Sanaa, a member from the United Arab List, told The Jerusalem Post. ''You can't live in the Middle East and pretend you are in Europe. We see this proposal as political and nonsensical. It's part of this government's attempt to harm everything connected to the Arab population of Israel.''The weekend varies across the region, and it has been shifting in recent years. In Jordan, for example, Friday is a day off and, like in much of the Gulf, Thursday used to be the start of the weekend. But Jordan switched to Saturday partly to accommodate the banks that deal with global commerce. Many institutions and shops remain open on Saturday.In Egypt, the weekend is Friday and Saturday, but Christian Copts, who make up 10 percent of the population, keep their community schools closed on Friday and Sunday. In the Palestinian areas, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Friday is a day off with Saturday partially off.In Israel, Friday is already an unproductive day. It is officially a half-day, and the third of the Jewish population that is Sabbath observant - they do not travel, cook or work starting at sundown on Friday - spends much of the day shopping, cleaning and cooking. In the winter, when sundown arrives at 4 p.m., very little gets done.So it would be logical that, like Muslims, observant Jews would favor starting the weekend on Friday morning. And many do. In addition, they argue that taking off Sunday, the Christian day of rest, in the only Jewish state makes no sense.''We imitate the West in so many areas that it would be a shame that one of the beautiful contributions of the Jews to the world, the Sabbath, would be desecrated in the Jewish state,'' Yisrael Cohen, a public relations employee, said in an interview with the newspaper Yediot Aharonot. ''It would be a pity to harm the Sabbath for another day off, the Christian day of rest.''But there is a competing perspective among observant Jews that taking Sunday off would allow them some time away from work and religious obligations.''Observing the Sabbath is an asset that I will not give up, but the result is that I don't have a real day off to travel or go to the beach,'' David Porat, an industrial area manager, told Yediot Aharonot in a separate interview. ''This plan would also allow me to spend time with my nonreligious friends.''The few days off each year in Israel that have no religious obligations see huge numbers of observant Jews clogging the roads and state parks.'' People really look forward to Election Day because you get the day off and it's not a religious holiday,'' said Gil Hoffman, political correspondent for The Jerusalem Post. ''The problem is that this government is so stable, we have a long wait for the next one.''Zeev Elkin, a Parliament member from the Likud party who favors taking Sundays off, said in a recent interview with Mr. Hoffman that the country was heading toward a majority of Sabbath-observant citizens, and unless a day was added to the weekend when they could engage in commerce and culture, the economy would suffer.''The fact that they are not participating as consumers in the shopping, cultural and sports events that take place on weekends could harm these economic sectors in the future if Sundays do not become a day off,'' he said.Opinion polls suggest that a majority of Israelis do like the idea of taking Sunday off. The proposal to do so, put forward by Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom of Likud, would increase the length of the regular workday and require a half-day on Friday in exchange for Sunday off. Schools, which are in session half a day on Friday, would have to adjust to longer days and serve lunch. Today, children leave school at 1 and eat at home.''It is impossible to stop the train now that it has left the station,'' Mr. Shalom said Monday of the proposal. ''We must move to a long weekend as soon as possible in keeping with all the developed states of the world.''An undercurrent to the debate is whether Israelis consider themselves hard-working or not. Compared with other industrialized countries, they put in many hours, although not everyone considers them productive. When this issue first arose, decades ago, the prime minister at the time, Levi Eshkol, was asked what he thought of a five-day workweek for Israel.''Let's start with working two days, then build up to three and four and get to five,'' he is reported to have deadpanned.