The Supreme Court of Justice on Sunday rejected Chief Rabbinate’s request to ban visitors from bringing non-kosher food products for Passover (chametz) into hospitals during the holidays, a rule that has long broken the status quo and angered ultra-rectangular lawyers.
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, who is the leader of the English party, said the rule would be changed by legislation to avoid the court and ensure hospitals will uphold the rights of patients who keep kosher .
A visitor at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem eats bread at the Passover festival
“It is impossible for hospitals in a Jewish state to force the adoption of chametz on their land,” Deri said.
“Just after the [March] election, Shas wants the Knesset to pass a Patient Rights Bill, which seeks to maintain the status quo and empower hospital administrators to do so. “
United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni tasted the ruling and promised to reduce the judicial powers through legislation.
“High Court judges take advantage of the time between the terms of Knesset… and disregard for holding out who is keeping kosher and is in the hospital at the time Easter. We call for an end to this and an exploration of their unlimited power. “
England chairman Aryeh Deri, left, and UTJ MK Moshe Gafni
(Photos: Mati Elmaliach, Ido Erez)
Religious Affairs Minister Yaakov Avitan, also from England, called the ruling “disgraceful” and offensive to the Israeli people while also stamping on the status quo.
“The Supreme Court illegally decided the request of the Chief Rabbinate to refuse to hold a hearing on this urgent case, a request which even the attorney general has come together,” Avitan said.
“Now there is no way to ensure that the tens of thousands of Israelis who keep kosher on Easter will make that holiday.”
He accused the High Court of “separating the last strands of Jewish identity and the unity of the people” and called on judges to “respect the will of the majority in Israel and to hear the matter. “
Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg
(Photo: Moti Kimchi)
Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg, who is also one of the petitioners, welcomed the court ruling and said “the state has no place to lay its hands on people’s plates.”
The leader of the Be Free Israel secularist movement, Uri Keidar, thanked the court for “ending the tragic scene of the humble ritual in which security guards must rummage through Israeli bags when they reach the hospitals on Passover. “
“The rabbinate has once again surprisingly demonstrated that it has lost touch with the reality in Israel by slowing down the legal process for years without offering a single conventional solution,” Keidar said. .
“Hospital visitors will continue to treat each other with respect for each other, and the rabbinate would do well to do some introspection and not try to impose real restrictions on people who are in complex situations. enough as it is. “