In Egypt the weekend is Friday and Saturday, but Christian Copts, who make up 10 percent of the population, keep their community schools closed on Friday and Sunday. Also, many Christian businesses close on Sunday instead of Saturday. In the Palestinian areas, the West Bank and Gaza, Friday is a day off with Saturday partially off. Schools in Gaza, for example, are in session on Saturday.

In Israel, Friday is already an unproductive day. It is officially a half-day, and the third of the Jewish population that is Sabbath observant — they do not travel, cook or work starting at sundown on Friday — spends much of the day shopping, cleaning and cooking. In the winter, when sundown arrives at 4 p.m., very little gets done.

So it would be logical that, like Muslims, observant Jews would favor starting the weekend on Friday morning. And many do. In addition, they argue that taking off Sunday, the Christian day of rest, in the only Jewish state makes no sense.

“We imitate the West in so many areas that it would be a shame that one of the beautiful contributions of the Jews to the world, the Sabbath, would be desecrated in the Jewish state,” Yisrael Cohen, a public relations employee, said in an interview with the newspaper Yediot Aharonot. “It would be a pity to harm the Sabbath for another day off, the Christian day of rest.”

But there is a competing perspective among observant Jews that taking Sunday off would allow them some time to do normal things on a day when they do not have religious obligations and restrictions.

“Observing the Sabbath is an asset that I will not give up, but the result is that I don’t have a real day off to travel or go to the beach,” David Porat, an industrial area manager, told Yediot Aharonot in a separate interview. “This plan would also allow me to spend time with my nonreligious friends.”

The few days off each year in Israel that have no religious obligations see huge numbers of observant Jews clogging the roads and state parks.