The saga in Tiberias continues with Ron Kobi continuing with his street parties on Shabbos on the boardwalk. The casualties so far, besides for Shabbos itself, now include the first restaurant to lose its hechsher. The restaurant named Basel decided to open on Shabbos to benefit from the large numbers of visitors and potential business, and the hechsher was immediately pulled.
Interestingly, the hechsher on this restaurant was mehadrin under the certification of Rabbanut Tiberias Mehadrin and Chug Chatam Sofer (Petach Tikva). It surprised me to hear that of all the restaurants that might have decided to forgo the hechsher and open on Shabbos, the first one to do so would be a mehadrin restaurant. I guess with no business on Shabbos it paid to be mehadrin to get the more religious business, but that did not override the ability to do business on Shabbos.
I heard Ron Kobi, the mayor, justify this saying that Shabbos isnt a factor and no more coercion, and the Rabbanut isn't necessary as Tzohar is available and restaurants and hotels can switch to Tzohar.
I have no idea what Tzohar's rules and requirements are, but I would be surprised to hear that they would be part of allowing chilul shabbos and will give a hechsher to a place open on Shabbos without being able to certify it. Perhaps they have other solutions the Rabbanut would not consider, I do not know, but my guess is that the switch to Tzohar will not make a big difference in this rgeard. There might be other reasons and benefits for them, but I have a hard time believing that all the restaurants in Tiberias that want to open on Shabbos will just switch to Tzohar certification and will suddenly be able to do so.
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