My latest Global Voices Online post examines the Israeli law which forbids businesses to run during the time of Sabbath. Over the past week there has been rising anticipation towards the planned Harry Potter gala event, which was synchronized worldwide to 2am local time, Friday night, smack in the midst of the Jewish Sabbath. The law itself is extremely problematic, in a country like Israel which is becoming more and more capitalistic. in current day Israel, many businesses are open during the Sabbath (unlike a mere 15 years ago when I was growing up there…). They are willing to soak up the cost of the fine received for working on Saturday, since the profit is so much higher. There was definitely no worry about Steimatzky, Israel’s largest bookstore, canceling the event because of threats from the religious parties in the government. Still thousands of excited fans came to the Tel-Aviv port to participate in the event!
The picture below was taken after 3am, when lines were already quite short. Although the port drew steady streams of very excited fans, with big smiles!
