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(JTA) — Europe’s highest court of rights has ruled that a ban on ritual slaughter in some parts of Belgium is valid, arguing that the ban is an unwarranted violation of Jewish customs. It dashed the hopes of Jewish defenders.
Two of Belgium’s three regions banned the practice of slaughter without stunning in 2017 and 2018, citing animal cruelty. Stunning before slaughter is prohibited in both shechitah, the Jewish ritual slaughter, and zabiha, the Islamic method of slaughtering animals for food.
Opposition to shishta and zabiha has spread beyond animal rights activists in recent years, as right-wing parties have begun pushing for bans as part of their policies to reduce the presence of Islam, and in some cases Judaism, in society. .
The European Union Court of Justice has handed Jewish community leaders a landslide defeat by upholding the 2021 ban. Israel’s ambassador to Belgium called the ruling “a devastating blow to Jewish life in Europe.” But last year, the EU’s anti-Semitism envoy invited Jews and Muslims to discuss meat production with EU officials, and some Jewish attendees saw this as progress towards ensuring religious freedom. rated it as.
Now, the European Court of Human Rights, which is not part of the EU, has dashed those hopes, upholding the ban in a ruling largely in line with a 2021 EU ruling.
“The protection of animal welfare constitutes an increasingly important ethical value in modern democratic societies and should be taken into account when assessing restrictions placed on the outward expression of religious beliefs. “The court’s seven justices wrote an opinion, the contents of which were made public. In French.
Although the ruling does not apply across Europe, it is seen as an important precedent for other countries that may consider banning ritual slaughter.
“Restrictions on fundamental aspects of Jewish freedom of religious expression, coupled with a backdrop of massive increases in anti-Semitic attacks against Jewish communities, seriously question whether Jews have a future in Europe. ” said Rabbi Ariel Muzikant, president of the European Jewish Congress. mentioned in. statement.
“We are already seeing attempts across Europe to comply with this Belgian ban, which sadly is now legalized by the ECHR,” added Muzikant. “Europe’s Jewish communities now more than ever need the protection of national governments and pan-European organizations to prevent an abrupt end to thousands of years of Jewish life on this continent.”
The ban joins a number of EU countries where ritual slaughter is illegal, including Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Slovenia. The Netherlands briefly joined the list in 2011, but the Dutch Senate overturned the ban in 2012 on grounds of religious freedom. Poland also banned ritual slaughter in 2013, but later narrowed the ban to only include meat for export.
Proponents of the practice argue that it is not only required by religious law, but also causes less suffering to animals than mechanized slaughter methods, which have high failure rates and are less sensitive to individual animals. claim.
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