A delegation of Dutch Rabbis representing the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE) met with two high-ranking representatives of the Dutch Parliament on the eve of the first night of Hanukah, the Jewish festival of light, to express their gratitude for the rejection by Holland of a ban on kosher slaughter or shechita.
The delegation, which included Rabbi Yitzchak Vorst of Amsterdam, Chief rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, and Rabbi Shmuel Katzman of The Hague, met with Fred de Graaf, President of the Dutch Senate, or upper house of the Parliament, and Gerdi Verbeet, President of the House of Representatives.
On this occasion, the group of rabbis presented a menorah, the Jewish candelabrum, to the Dutch Parliament.
Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, who also serves as a senior member of the RCE, explained to the Dutch MPs that the menorah is lit on Hanukkah for eight days consecutively and symbolizes the victory of light over darkness.
After presenting the menorah, Rabbi Jacobs recited the traditional Jewish prayer for the welfare of the Queen of Holland and for the unity of the Dutch people.
"We should not be afraid of the darkness because it allows us the opportunity to bring in light," Rabbi Jacobs said
The meeting between the rabbis and the Dutch parliamentarians took place as a bill to ban shechita was withdrawn by the Dutch Senate days before a scheduled vote.
Marianne Thieme, the leader of the tiny Animal Rights Party, withdrew the bill that she initiated after a majority of Senators expressed their objection to the ban that had been adopted by the lower house of the Dutch parliament in June.
Holland’s Agriculture Minister, Henk Bleker, has suggested a compromise proposal in which an agreement could be made with Jewish and Muslim slaughterhouses regarding the length of time that an animal is conscious before dying and the number of animals to be ritually slaughtered.
Thieme’s bill had required that animals be stunned before slaughter. Jewish and Muslim religious slaughter must be performed with the animal fully conscious.
A new bill that would further regulate the religious meat industry, but not ban it, is expected to be presented to parliament in January.