This year's Independence Day celebrations conveniently fell just before the weekend, giving those Israeli workers who can avoid the half-day job on Friday a nice, three-day break. Kulanu MK Eli Cohen thinks that's going to be good for Israel's productivity, and if he has his way, the country will soon get a lot more vacation days. “Here in Israel we work among the most hours in the world, and the productivity is among the lowest,” he said in a Tuesday interview with The Jerusalem Post in Tel Aviv. “The bill says that in Israel, once a month workers will get a long weekend. This is a dramatic change on work conditions in Israel.” The bill he refers to is a compromise on a long-standing discussion on whether Israel should align its weekends with the West, taking Sunday off and finding some sort of accommodation for Shabbat. It would mandate one long weekend, Friday-Sunday, every month.
