TheDrakeMan
06-29-2011, 03:20 PM
Amsterdam - The Dutch parliament has passed a bill banning the slaughter of livestock without stunning it first, removing an exemption that has allowed Jews and Muslims to butcher animals according to their centuries-old dietary rules.
If enacted and enforced, religious groups say observant Jews and Muslims would have to import meat from abroad, stop eating it altogether, or leave the Netherlands.
However, the bill must still pass the Senate, which is unlikely before the summer recess, and the Cabinet said on Monday the law may be unenforcable in its current form due in part to ambiguity introduced in a last-minute amendment.
If the Netherlands outlaws procedures that make meat kosher for Jews or halaal for Muslims, it will be the second country after New Zealand to do so in recent years. It will join Switzerland, the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, whose bans are mostly traceable to pre-World War 2 anti-Semitism.
In New York, the Anti-Defamation League condemned Tuesday's vote in the lower house, with its national director, Abraham H Foxman, calling it “a de facto ban on kosher slaughter” that “has repudiated the Netherlands' historic commitment to religious freedom”.
“Dutch Jews must not be put to the choice of violating a central tenet of Judaism, foregoing fresh meat, or emigrating. We call upon the Dutch Senate to prevent this action from leading to a clear violation of religious freedom that has a disproportionate impact on the Jewish community,” Foxman said in a statement.
Ritual slaughter rules prescribe that animals' throats must be cut swiftly with a razor-sharp knife while they are still conscious, so that they bleed to death quickly.
Support for the ban came from the political left, which sees ritual slaughter as inhumane, and from the anti-immigration right, which sees it as foreign and barbaric.
Full article here:
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/dutch-ban-religious-animal-slaughter-1.1090541
If enacted and enforced, religious groups say observant Jews and Muslims would have to import meat from abroad, stop eating it altogether, or leave the Netherlands.
However, the bill must still pass the Senate, which is unlikely before the summer recess, and the Cabinet said on Monday the law may be unenforcable in its current form due in part to ambiguity introduced in a last-minute amendment.
If the Netherlands outlaws procedures that make meat kosher for Jews or halaal for Muslims, it will be the second country after New Zealand to do so in recent years. It will join Switzerland, the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, whose bans are mostly traceable to pre-World War 2 anti-Semitism.
In New York, the Anti-Defamation League condemned Tuesday's vote in the lower house, with its national director, Abraham H Foxman, calling it “a de facto ban on kosher slaughter” that “has repudiated the Netherlands' historic commitment to religious freedom”.
“Dutch Jews must not be put to the choice of violating a central tenet of Judaism, foregoing fresh meat, or emigrating. We call upon the Dutch Senate to prevent this action from leading to a clear violation of religious freedom that has a disproportionate impact on the Jewish community,” Foxman said in a statement.
Ritual slaughter rules prescribe that animals' throats must be cut swiftly with a razor-sharp knife while they are still conscious, so that they bleed to death quickly.
Support for the ban came from the political left, which sees ritual slaughter as inhumane, and from the anti-immigration right, which sees it as foreign and barbaric.
Full article here:
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/dutch-ban-religious-animal-slaughter-1.1090541