Interior Minister Avraham Poraz (Shinui) carried out his
pledge not to send out inspectors to enforce the Chometz Law,
allowing hundreds of store owners and companies across the
country to sell and display chometz during Pesach.
The Ministry's policy represents the first time since the
State's founding that the religious status quo in this matter
has been breached, and violates the coalition agreement
signed between Shinui and the NRP. On Erev Pesach, Shinui
Chairman Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said, "I do not believe
the Mafdal (NRP) will resign from the government over some
sandwich." Shinui officials say the party is carrying out its
pledge to effect a "secular revolution."
"The Interior Minister has more important things to do than
to deal with the Chometz Law," said Poraz' spokesman.
Paragraph 1 of Chok Chag Hamatzot 5746 (1986) renders
anyone who puts chometz on display during Pesach
criminally liable. The penalty for violations stood at NIS
100 ($22) until last year when Eli Yishai, then serving as
Minister of the Interior, raised the fine to NIS 400. Yishai
said a combination of interests between Shinui and the Mafdal
is what led to this year's failure to enforce the Chometz
Law. Yishai expressed regret that during his term in office
he did not expand the law to include a prohibition against
the sale of chometz.
MK Gila Finkelstein (Mafdal) contacted high-ranking officials
in her party with a request to hold an urgent party meeting
to discuss the party's continued participation in the
government "in light of the breach in the status quo by the
Shinui Party, which has trampled over the law with a heavy
foot."
MK Rabbi Avrohom Ravitz (UTJ) told Yated Ne'eman, "The
[incident] justifies our ideological position vis- a-vis the
State of Israel, for we do not see in it any tie to Judaism
and Jewish identity."
MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni (UTJ) told Yated Ne'eman that he
contacted Attorney General Eliakim Rubinstein to demand he
try Interior Minister Avraham Poraz for contempt of the
Chometz Law. "Poraz is taking advantage of his power and of
his own accord is deciding which law to uphold and which law
to bypass, thereby harming fundamental principles. It would
be interesting [to see] what would happen if a religious
minister were to bypass a law that harms his principles."
Rabbi Gafni says he will ask Rubinstein to act against
Minister of Industry, Trade and Employment Ehud Olmert for
not dispatching inspectors to enforce the Shabbat Law, which
has been breached at major shopping centers, causing large-
scale Shabbos desecration.
