Kikar brings an interesting court decision regarding working on Shabbos.

According to the report, the City of Herzliya sent enforcement supervisors on Shabbos to give out tickets to cars parked illegally. Someone appealed his 750nis ticket claiming that it was illegal for the City to give out tickets on Shabbos like that, unless the illegally parked car is a danger to the public. The claim is that employing the meter maids on Shabbos is illegal and against the Shabbos work-rest laws.

The court accepted the argument and decided that without an issue of pikuach nefesh it is against the law to use the meter maids on Shabbos. The judge lowered the fine to 1nis.

What I don't get about this is - why are these not two separate issues? Why does a ticket already given deserve to be canceled just because the employment on that day was illegal - the employment issue has nothing to do with the owner of the car but rather is between the employer and employee? And if the ticket does get canceled because it is deemed invalid, why was it only lowered to 1nis and not canceled entirely?

Further, the court was opposed, rightfully so, to the use of Jewish meter maids on Shabbos. Presumably, if the City used Druze or other non-Jewish meter maids that would be fine and the ticket would remain valid.

Interestingly, the Mayor of Herzliya recently refused to join the "public transportation on Shabbos" initiative led by Tel Aviv and was praised highly (by many) for his decision to stand up for Shabbos. It turns out he himself is employing workers on Shabbos, so I am not sure what his stance regarding public Shabbos-work really is.