PORK butchery briefly supplanted violence, occupation, settlements, bombings, shootings and disengagement in the headlines yesterday, as Israel’s highest court overturned a ban on selling pig meat.
In a landmark ruling hailed as a victory by secular Israelis, a nine-judge panel ordered local authorities to scrap laws that imposed a blanket prohibition. Many areas permit the sale and butchers openly defy the law in those that do not, but issues such as pork and Sabbath opening hours are central in defining the relationship between religion and state in a nation where divisions between the secular and ultra-Orthodox are often disguised beneath the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
While the secular Shinui party welcomed the decision, it was denounced by religious groups, who fear that an influx of secular jews — principally the one million-plus immigrants from the former Soviet Union — has undermined Israel’s unique status. “The High Court has driven a central nail in the coffin of Jewish identity in the State,” said Eli Yishai, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party.
In Bet Shemesh, a town affected by the ruling, delicatessens were openly selling salami, ham and bacon. One secular Russian Jew who emigrated from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, lamented: “We came here to escape anti-Semitism there, and here again we feel they are against us. Where else can I go?”