 Hi there, welcome back to my YouTube channel. This is Daniel Rosel and this YouTube channel mostly covers developments related to Jerusalem and living in Israel. A few days ago, I posted a video about the general state of public transport in Israel. As I noted in that video, the fact that virtually no public transport operates on the Shabbat has been a huge cause of frustration for Israel's secular population. The reasons for this are pretty self-evident. If you don't own a car, then for half of every single weekend in the year, you have essentially no better means of getting around anywhere than walking. There are a couple of small exceptions such as public transport in the mixed city of Haifa and shared taxis which operate between cities, but mostly the picture is that public transport does not operate. Secular Israelis have long charge that this amounts to religious coercion. The fact that Tel Aviv's light rail system will not run on Shabbat was a major bone of contention between residents in that city. The service is due to begin operating on the 18th of this month. Many would argue that the situation as it stands exists because religious parties enjoy outsized influence in Israeli coalition agreements both at the national and municipal government level. This issue is perhaps nowhere more divisive than in Jerusalem. Unlike most cities in Israel, the majority of the city's Jewish residents are either religious or traditional. Secular residents are in the minority. Previous attempts to institute public transport in Jerusalem have been met with extremely fierce resistance and even the opening of car parks would operate on Shabbat has been met with picketing. The latest attempt to break the status quo in Jerusalem, the status quo being that there is no public transport available within the city on Shabbat, is an initiative by the Hitora Route political party. Hitora Route is a left-leaning political faction within Jerusalem's local politics that tends to focus on social and economic policy. Jerusalem has municipal elections coming up on October the 31st and the incumbent mayor Moshe Leon is running for reelection. Here's what's notable about the service in Jerusalem that's due to begin operating this weekend. Firstly, it's going to be free. The slogan on the minibuses livery is Jerusalem of Hitora Route also on Shabbat. Hitora Route in Hebrew translates to awakening in English. To use the service, potential users need to sign up via an online system and can choose to travel within Jerusalem or continue on to the beaches in Tel Aviv. To say that operating a free bus service in Jerusalem on Shabbat is going to strike up controversy is a massive understatement. Besides religious critics who find the idea of operating a Shabbat violating service in the holy city of Jerusalem about his savoury idea as attending a pork barbecue, those aligned with different political factions have described it as an election gimmick by Hitora Route intended to shore up support for the party ahead of the elections. Hitora Route in turn never responded by saying that even if it is a gimmick, it's a gimmick that's going to make life better for Jerusalem's secular residents, non-Jewish residents and just about anybody else who wants to get around the city on Shabbat.