Many secular Israelis object to the exemptions from army service given to students at religious seminaries or yeshivas and the large state subsidies that their institutions receive.
The authorities object to the devices because they operate an encrypted message service meaning that communication from Blackberry devices cannot be monitored.
Tom Higgins, the boss of Best Western, says free access is becoming the norm because travellers object to paying for what they now regard as an essential service.
As a result, many people no longer think of credit, debit, or prepaid as a service: people view payment cards as objects, with all of the iconic power that an object has when it becomes so ubiquitous.