Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday tasked the Head of the National Economic Council, Professor Eugene Kandel, with examining the possibility of making Sunday an additional day of rest instead of a regular work day.

According to the proposal, Saturday and Sunday will be official days of rest while Friday will become a half day work-wise...

The proposal was drawn up by Minister for Regional Development Silvan Shalom several months ago. Shalom believes Israel's economy would benefit from a shift to long weekends, as is customary in the rest of the western world.

"It's a cosmopolitan move. Those who wish to join the world must adopt this 'long weekend' model of Saturday-Sunday as done by many countries across the world, such as India, China, Japan and Muslim countries such as Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia and more," explained Shalom.

"Nearly 75% of the world's population work according to this model, and Israel must join and align itself with the world," he added.

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