The European Commission in Brussels is intervening once again
in the matter of kosher shechitah in Europe. The
bureaucracy is preparing a new directive aimed at bypassing
the existing arrangement and undermining shechitah by
applying pressure through the European Parliament.
Member Patrick Gibert said recently, "There are two issues
all of the parliament members, from the far left to the
extreme right, agree on: Palestine and animal rights."
Every time the issue comes up they try to interfere with
kosher shechitah based on concern for animals.
According to the weekly journal Actualite Juif, Jews
only learned about the directive by chance. After the
European Commission agreed to an arrangement that would allow
Jews to shecht without first administering electric
shocks, now they are trying to circumvent it by giving each
country the freedom to make the decision.
According to the new directive, "Member states may refuse to
execute the arrangement and may demand the animal is stunned
before shechitah, although the European Union signed a
declaration recognizing the religious freedom of worship of
its citizens."
One rabbi said the European Parliament and the European
Commission are displaying hypocrisy regarding
shechitah. They have permitted the brutish custom of
killing bulls by inserting a sword into the bull's head in
the bullrings of Spain and southern France and are also not
demanding hunters stun an animal before slaughtering it with
gunfire or knives. On the other hand, they create hurdles and
threaten Jewish shechitah with claims of cruelty to
animals.
The directive challenges shechitah performed upside-
down, demanding it be in a standing position. In Paragraph 2,
Section 7 of the directive, the Europeans require
shochtim to receive a slaughterer's certificate from
the state, which would mean that Jewish communities would no
longer be able to appoint shochtim independently,
based on halacha. "They are undermining freedom of religion,"
said members of the Jewish community in Brussels.
Of the 27 countries in the European Union, Sweden, Latvia and
Estonia currently outlaw shechitah and Denmark is set
to impose a ban.
Another idea raised in the European Union is to label meat
from animals that became treif and sold as non-kosher
meat in European markets "slaughtered through ritual
slaughter." This could discourage consumers from buying that
meat and cause financial losses for the kosher meat industry.
Parliament members and animal rights organizations are trying
to pressure the bureaucracy to invent schemes to hinder
shechitah without banning it officially. They are even
studying hilchos shechitah to find breaches.
Animal rights organizations are gaining influence in Europe
and their propaganda floods the media. They are deaf to
counter-claims that shechitah does not inflict pain.
The president of the rabbinate, Yoel Margi, said it would
seek the support of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has
intervened in defense of shechitah in the past.
