A new reform promoted by MK Yulia Malinowski, who heads the Committee for Special National Infrastructure Initiatives and Jewish Religious Services, seeks to break the long-standing monopoly on meat imported to Israel, and allow recognized kosher bodies to sell kosher meat in Israel without rabbinical approval.
Today it is allowed to sell in Israel only meat that has the stamp of the Chief Rabbinate.
But over the years it has been argued that this causes a centralized and closed market, where only a few dozen meat importers depend on about 600 slaughterers to supply all the kosher meat consumed by Israeli citizens.
According to the initiators of the law, most of the members of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, the importers "are forced to finance delegations abroad of slaughter crews, who earn large sums, embodied in the meat costs in Israel for the consumer." The following arrangements, they argue that in view of the many problems and shortage of manpower "the meat industry in Israel, including its products, suffers from shortages, and astronomical costs are passed on to the consumer, who suffers from the high cost of living."
Stable array abroad
The initiators of the law propose to open the market to competition by approving competing kosher bodies to approve the sale of meat.
These are not anonymous bodies, but bodies approved by the Chief Rabbinate, such as the largest kosher organization in the world, OU, "OK Kosher" and more, which already provide kosher meat in various countries around the world according to Halacha.
"The rationale behind the proposal is simple - Diaspora Jews eat meat from the same recognized kosher bodies abroad, which grant kosher meat in their country according to the laws of the Orthodox Jewish current, and have already been approved by the Rabbinate's Import Department for food imports.
Therefore, there is no reason why this slaughter should not be considered kosher in Israel. "
Today, the explanatory memorandum to the bill states that 60% of the kosher meat consumed in Israel is imported from abroad, and the amount of the excess costs of kosher food ranges from NIS 550 to 770 million per year.
Through the reform, it was argued, Israel would not have to send expensive delegations abroad to slaughter, and the price would be significantly reduced.
"Meat abroad is smooth meat, with a higher level of kosher than the basic kosher in Israel, so there is no impediment to not approving those bodies for kosher meat products in Israel." Another advantage, they say, is that the meat will be slaughtered abroad and not in Israel.
"The bill will make it possible to significantly reduce live shipments by reducing the costs of imported meat."
"For thirty years there has been a monopoly of the rabbinate and religious activists in everything related to the import of meat to Israel," MK Yulia Malinowski told Israel Today.
This market is held by a small group of Aryeh Deri associates, and this is what makes our meat more expensive.
"There is no doubt that meat in Israel should be kosher, so the bill I submitted will break this monopoly and allow kosher bodies abroad recognized by the rabbinate to grant kosher meat to imported meat, which will reduce the costs of meat for Israeli citizens."
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