Windows of Herzliya pasta franchise smashed, allegedly because it opens on Shabbat

Michael Horovitz is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel

A branch of a popular pasta chain in Herzliya was vandalized overnight Thursday-Friday, allegedly because it opens for business on Shabbat.

Mayor Yariv Fisher expressed outrage on Facebook after the windows of the Pasta Basta franchise were smashed, in the same shopping center where a branch of the Othello ice cream chain was thrice vandalized until it decided to shutter its doors on Shabbat, which runs from sundown Friday to nightfall on Saturday.

“This is a very serious criminal act. Firstly, we are standing by the business owners and are working with the police to quickly locate those responsible and bring them to justice,” Fisher wrote. Herzliya is a largely secular city.

He added, “It is important to state that this is not just an attack on the business itself, but more generally on the core values of Herzliya and its residents.”

Fisher said he spoke to the owner of the restaurant and agreed on steps to continue to promote the shopping complex in light of the vandalism.

He said he will continue to hold regular meetings with his municipal coalition at the branch, as he wrote that he has done for two weeks as a gesture of support for the shopping complex.

He said he also “expressed a great desire to cooperate with all the businesses in the complex to generate more weekend traffic to the center: With support for events in the city square, and, soon, staffing the municipality’s cafe there, which is intended to be open seven days a week and will add more traffic to the entertainment complex.”

He vowed the acts of vandalism would not deter him from promoting Herzliya as a “beacon of liberalism.”

After suffering three acts of vandalism within several months, the Othello branch in Herzliya decided in February it would no longer open over Shabbat until its safety was assured, according to Hebrew media reports. Fisher had also publicly protested that vandalism.

Enforcement of laws regarding commerce on Shabbat, when traditional Jewish law prohibits working, is an ongoing issue of contention in Israel and part of the larger debate over the role of religion in the public square.

Municipal and national laws often differ, sometimes leading to conflict between city authorities and the national government, as well as causing local discord.

Businesses across the country are occasionally vandalized by extremists who oppose their operating hours on Shabbat.

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