Days of (un) Rest: Political Consumerism and the Struggle over the Sabbath Guy Ben Porat and Omri Shamir Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Abstract: In spite of legal limitations, commerce in Israel on the Sabbath has expanded significantly in the past two decades. This secular development is counteracted by religious boycotts of stores operating on the Sabbath. Using Ulrich Beck’s concept of sub-politics, we explain the shift away from the formal political realm, a result of a deadlocked political system that is no longer able to regulate boundaries between the religious and secular realm. As a result, both religious and secular communities use their power as consumers, albeit in different ways, to shape the public sphere. Using media reports and open-ended interviews with religious and secular entrepreneurs we demonstrate how, first, the value of formal political channels was eroded and, second, how the economic power of religious and secular consumers is used in the new struggles to shape the day of rest. INTRODUCTION In spite of legal limitations, commerce in Israel on the Sabbath, which extends from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday night, has expanded significantly in the past two decades. To the dismay of religious people, shopping malls across the country attract thousands of customers on the Sabbath. In March 2008, the ultra-religious community in Israel declared a boycott against an Israeli businessman after he refused to close his AM:PM chain stores in Tel Aviv, which operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on the Sabbath. While religious boycotts have been declared before, this time a significant target was chosen. David Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Guy Ben Porat, Department of Public Policy and Administration, Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel 84105. E-mail: gbp@som.bgu.ac.il; or to Omri Shamir, Department of Public Policy and Administration, Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management, Ben- Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel 84105. E-mail: shamiro1@zahav.net.il 161 Politics and Religion, 5 (2012), 161–186 © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, 2012 doi:10.1017/S1755048311000678 1755-0483/12 $25.00