"Israel will not accept restrictions on Jewish religious freedom," said Danny Danon, a member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in reference to European legislation seeking to ban shechita, the Jewish ritual slaughter of animals. Danon, from the Likud party, chairs the Knesset Immigration and Diaspora Affairs Committee which met this week to discuss the issue in the presence of representatives from European Jewish organizations and communities involved in the campaign to halt legislation against shechita in Europe. "We shall call on European parliaments and the European Union to put a stop to this. The pretext (for this legislation) is preventing cruelty to animals or animal rights but there is sometimes an element of anti-Semitism and there is a hidden message that Jews are cruel to animals," he said. Danon requested the Knesset research and information center to carry out a study on the issue. A further debate will be held in a month's time. Jacob Edery, a member of the parliament from the Kadima party, who initiated the debate, spoke of his recent visit in Holland and said that the Knesset must do the maximum to stop such a legislation. In May 2009, the European Parliament voted by a large majority against the proposal to ban shechita and this vote was approved by the Council of Ministers the European Union in December 2010.
The European Union also rejected a proposal to label kosher meat as "meat from slaughter without stunning."
But Moshe Friedman, from the Conference of European Rabbis, warned that similar legislative proposals are likely to be repeated in the EU institutions.
Shechita and trade in kosher meat were banned in Switzerland around a century ago and Norway passed a similar law 4 years ago.
In Holland, the lower house of the Parliament, adopted a law requiring animals to be stunned before slaughter but this was rejected in December by the Senate, the upper house of the assembly, following intervention by members of the US Congress and Jewish organizations.
Since then, Dutch Agriculture Minister Henk Bleker suggested a compromise proposal formulating new regulations to tighten supervision over shechita.
Moshe Friedman expressed cautious optimism but warned against complacency, noting that the message received by citizens of Europe is that Judaism is cruel to animals.
He said that this might open the way to banning brit mila, the Jewish ritual circumcision.
Holland's Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, reported that some 2,500 heads of beef are slaughtered annually in Holland for Jewish consumption and noted that the price of kosher meat is 200% higher that non-kosher meat.
Non-kosher meat costs about 9 euros a kilo in European Union countries, while the price of kosher meat can reach 30 euros a kilo.
According to Italy's Chief Rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, the main opponents of shechita in Europe are the Green parties ansd and the anti-immigration parties, in particular of Muslims.
Rabbi Di Segni stressed that while most Muslims are actually prepared to accept stunning of animals before slaughtering, Jewish religious law forbids this, so that the new laws specifically target Jews.
Rabbi Yaakov Elharar, director of the office of Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi, claimed that the current wave of legislation is due to the growing number of Muslims in Europe some of whom carry out mass and public slaughter of animals in public parks, private gardens, and even inside apartments, where the blood may flow into neighboring apartments.
The Knesset debate saw the participation of members from various parties including Labour, Likud, Shas and United Torah Judaism. "This shows the Europeans how important the issue is for us," one member noted.
Shmuel Ben Shmuel, head of the Diaspora and Religions Department in Israel’s foreign ministry, told the meeting that the ministry has been dealing with this issue for years and that the Ambassador to Holland has been working with legislators, Jewish organizations and public figures.
This was however denied by representatives of European Jewish organizations, as well as by Jacob Edery and Avraham Michaeli, from the Shas party, who claimed that this activity was "negligible."
The Chief Rabbi of Holland even said that the Ambassador had never contacted him and they had never even met.