Park Petach Tikva only opens on Shabbos to keep Haredim out

We have seen plenty of attempts by cities to keep Haredim out of their local parks (usually during vacation periods, but not just). Often they do so by charging entrance fees to non-residents or making some other rules that the Haredim will find uncomfortable enough that they'll choose a different park to go to. In the past the courts have shot down all such attempts, as public parks are meant to be open to all equally.

The City of Petach Tikva might have found a way, though I am not quite sure why.

According to Hamechadesh, the city of Petach Tikva has reopened Park Petach Tikva, the large municipal park, after it was shut for a while due to the Corona lockdown. The thing is, they have only reopened the park on Shabbos day - it remains closed the rest of the week.

Local Haredim are complaining that opening the park like this, for seemingly no good reason, is obviously just to keep the Haredim out.

Why can't the local Haredim go to this park on Shabbos? They could, but they don't. There is even an eruv (like in all cities in Israel, so they could carry a picnic basket of they wanted to, and other non-muktza playthings as well. Still, the kids would not be riding their bikes to, or in, the park. and the Haredi families probably would not be playing ball int he park or doing other things they don't consider "Shabbosdik". So even though they technically could go to the park on Shabbos, they don't, and the city is not opening the park during the week.

If the local Haredim are upset about this, and not just one or two people who spoke up, they should go, en masse, on Shabbos for a few weeks and show the city that they will use the park when it is open and the city cannot circumvent them and avoid them. They do that for 2 or 3 weeks and it is likely the city will open the park during the week too.

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------