The Chevra Kadisha Forum and the director of ZAKA's legal
department filed a complaint to Kfar Saba police against Alei
Shalechet, a company that has set up the only crematorium in
Israel.
The complaint charges the company with illegally cremating
bodies, handling bodies without proper licensing, operating a
crematorium without the permits required by the municipal
ordnances, misleading advertising and harming public
sensitivities.
According to the legal opinion, Israeli legislation, without
exception, refers only to the possibility of burial, with no
legal references to cremation are on record. Furthermore,
until a few years ago the burial of Jews was only permitted
in Jewish cemeteries.
Alei Shalechet is neither licensed nor entitled to perform
cremations in Israel. The company contacted Bituach Leumi to
request subsidies for cremation, but the request was
rejected. The Prime Minister's Office also turned down the
company's request to receive authorization for its
activities.
In their police complaint the Chevra Kadisha and ZAKA claim
the company runs a misleading ad denying there is any
contradiction between cremation and the Jewish religion,
whereas in fact cremation is clearly a serious prohibition.
"The company hides the location of the crematorium for
obvious reasons and apparently it has no permits based on
municipal ordnances and stirs and revives associations of
Holocaust atrocities, deeply harming the sensitivities of
Holocaust survivors," said the figures who submitted the
complaint.
