No shabbos Cameras! Shuls, Yeshivas, have cameras? Check it out.

A few years ago, the Yerushalayim municipality installed a number of security cameras throughout the Old City. It was a time when there was a rash of stabbings and stabbing attempts in the Old City, and the cameras were aimed at helping catch the perps and also discouraging crime in the future, as perps will know they can more easily be apprehended.The issue was raised that perhaps the cameras operating on Shabbos would be a problem for those walking through the Old City on Shabbos to go to the Kosel.

Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv was reportedly asked a shailah, and after being made certain that the videos did not operate based on motion sensors and no lights were activated by people walking by, he paskened that people may continue to walk to the Kosel on Shabbos.

Now, however, according to a notice in the Israeli Yated Neeman, it seems the security system is not being monitored the way it was meant to be. Therefore, Rav Elyashiv has reportedly said that people should not walk to the Kosel on Shabbos, because they might be tripping security cameras. Until the system is checked to be okay, one should avoid it, according to Israeli sources, which state that while Rav Elyashiv was initially satisified with the arrangements, at a later time he, or his representatives, tried to get the police to make some changes to some of the technological aspects of the system to satisfy some more machmir concerns. When the police refused to comply with the request for additional changes, Rav Elyashiv supposedly withdrew his support.

It would seem - and this is conjecture, not part of Rav Elyashiv’s ruling - that such a p’sak would affect thousands of people every Shabbos, and not just those who are walking to the Kosel. These security cameras are placed throughout the Old City, and, according to this p’sak, people throughout the Old City would have to stay in their homes the whole Shabbos.