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Investigation of the meat slaughter system abroad: lawlessness worth NIS 27 billion | Israel Today

2022-07-21T13:11:17.081Z


Slaughters receive their salary from their meat importers they approve kosher • Machers rule who will get to fly to slaughterhouses and who will be left in the country without a livelihood • Expedition leaders take advantage of the chronic shortage of their jobs and jumpstart their conditions • We have not yet talked about the new slaughter school Three months, and on the alleged allegations of alcohol and drug use and escort girls in delegations • Investigation


Israelis love to eat meat, and a lot.

At Shabbat meals, at weddings, at friends' meetings in the yard, at Independence Day barbecues.

Entrecote, asado or lamb chops, served well-done or medium rare.

No matter how - we want more meat.

The problem starts when it comes to the complex area of ​​slaughtering and supervising the kosherness of the same meat.

Here it turns out that the issue sometimes suffers from disorder and is tainted with conduct that, according to evidence, borders, ostensibly, on corruption.

The non-negligible financial consequences of this conduct are ultimately borne by us, the consumers.

On behalf of the Chief Rabbinate, and in its training, there are currently about 600 butchers.

In addition, there are several dozen team leaders, also on behalf of the rabbinate, who manage the slaughter system in slaughterhouses abroad - from there comes most of the meat consumed in the country. Money of hundreds of millions of shekels a year - at least.

The actual wages are received by the heads of the teams and the slaughterers from the meat importers themselves - those who actually need their permits and services, both in Israel and especially abroad.

Along with the official teams, there are also allegations of the activities of alleged machinists, who intervene on their own behalf and actually win over the operation of the mechanism: they decide which butcher will go abroad and earn significant sums of money as wages, and who will remain in the country without employment.

Senior officials in the chief rabbinate also admit that this is a problematic conduct, some of which has been going on for decades, without serious and satisfactory supervision.

And although it is clear to everyone that a reform is needed that will correct the problems and shortcomings that will be detailed in this investigation - there is no real solution.

Every year, the meat and poultry sector in Israel generates NIS 27 billion, in a market controlled by individual import companies.

Data provided in recent months by the Ministry of Finance's Budget Division show that 60 percent of the meat consumed in Israel comes in the form of frozen or chilled meat slaughtered abroad and imported to Israel. According to sources involved in the field, the reason for preferring to slaughter abroad is twofold: "It is cheaper and more humane."

As we all feel well in the wallet, the price of meat to the consumer is significantly higher in Israel compared to other countries.

Data from the Ministry of Finance show that these prices are 43 percent higher than the average in OECD countries.

One of the main reasons for the high price is kosher, and according to various estimates, which even the chief rabbinate agrees are correct, the kosher segment is NIS 7-5 per kilogram of meat, which is 12-10 percent of the final cost to the consumer.

Photographs from slaughterhouses in South America, where slaughter teams from Israel work,

Photographs from slaughterhouses in South America, where slaughter teams from Israel work,

Photographs from slaughterhouses in South America, where slaughter teams from Israel work,

Two examiners across the country

The Meat and its Products Law, which was enacted in 1994 and regulates the field of meat imports to Israel, prohibits the import of meat that is not kosher to Israel.

Unlike other food products, it is not possible to import meat into the country and receive kosher food in retrospect, and importers are required to produce the meat in a slaughterhouse approved by the Chief Rabbinate, and through a slaughter team authorized by the rabbinate.

Let's be honest: the butcher profession is not easy.

Rabbinical slaughterers operate on the other side of the world, mostly in South American countries, slaughtering hundreds of cattle heads a day in high heat and humidity, and away from their family in the country for a long time - usually four months of intensive work called "slaughter season".

There are two slaughter seasons each year: the winter season - after Sukkot until Pesach, and the summer season - after Pesach until near Rosh Hashanah.

The slaughter crews who go abroad number about 15 people (minimum nine). Slaughter is shipped annually by importers abroad, including to Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Spain, Ireland and Australia - 35 slaughterhouses around the world.

According to the Chief Rabbinate's practices, importers are not allowed to employ butchers for more than two consecutive slaughter seasons.

Team members are paid only for the months they actually work.

For example, slaughterers, kosher supervisors and slaughter knife inspectors receive between $ 3,000 and $ 5,000 per month of work.

The salary of team leaders, according to which everything will be settled abroad, can reach more than $ 30,000 per month of work.

According to the rabbinate's procedures, in order to serve as butchers, internal and external inspectors (whose job it is to determine whether the slaughtered meat is considered kosher, prey or "smooth") and team leaders - a theoretical and practical examination must be passed, usually held three times a year.

The theoretical exams are conducted by the Department of Examinations and Certification in the Rabbinate, while the practical exams are conducted by the Department of Abattoirs Abroad.

A simple butcher is required to learn the laws of slaughter at Shulchan Aruch, and internal and external examiners need to learn the laws of slaughter.

A team leader is required to master more extensive material, including the laws of salinity, prohibition and permission - and more.

It is possible to advance in the various roles by gaining experience and passing tests.

When it comes to the practical exams phase, there is an immediate shortage: only two examiners work throughout the country, one of whom is considered chief, and they conduct the exams for candidates at a slaughterhouse in Be'er Sheva - the city where both are members of the religious council.

And if it is not enough to have only two examiners, it turns out that the situation is even more acute.

In a recent discussion on the issue of slaughter, the chairman of the Religious Services Committee, MK Yulia Malinowski (Yisrael Beiteinu), revealed that the chief examiner, who also serves as director of a slaughterhouse in Israel, has been working abroad for a long time. "A device for factories for private courts," Malinowski said at the hearing.

The Chief Rabbinate said in response that they were examining whether there was an ethical or legal problem in the examiner's side work.

The situation of the second examiner is also complex: in recent years, dozens of complaints have been submitted to the chief rabbinate against him by slaughterers, who claimed that he required them to pay him "large sums of money", ostensibly, before the practical test of slaughter - in exchange for their training.

In principle, examiners undertake not to receive compensation for the training of examinees for examinations, but due to the acute shortage of professionals who specialize in training and mentoring in the field of slaughter, professional ranks in the Chief Rabbinate allowed the examiner in question to receive compensation anyway.

Complainants' complaints against him were that he allegedly charged thousands of shekels for his services.

Last month, the examiner was summoned to the Knesset's Religious Affairs Committee regarding complaints against him, but he chose not to appear, despite the fact that he holds a public office.

The rabbinate said in response to Shishvat's request on the subject: "On the issue and its aftermath, the procedures have been sharpened."

Kosher inspection of meat abroad (illustration photo. Photographed has nothing to do with the article), Photo: AP

The school is stuck

Last February, the Chief Rabbinate and the Ministry of Religions launched a new school for slaughter studies, designed to refresh and regulate the field, and especially to train additional staff needed.

The school was to train thousands of new butchers in a relatively short time, thus opening the market to competition and finally reducing meat prices.

Millions of shekels have been invested in the new school, although it has not yet received a permanent residence.

A first course was even launched, but it did not materialize in the end.

The reason: Only three months after the decision to establish it, the Sephardic chief rabbi, Rishon LeZion Yitzhak Yosef, ordered it closed.

The official reason for the closure was that the Chief Rabbinical Council did not discuss the matter, and "it is not appropriate for the school to open without an official discussion on the issue and decision-making by the officials. These are decisions that the Chief Rabbinical Council must make."

Behind the scenes, explain sources involved in the matter, there was also heavy pressure from veteran slaughterers, whose reform in the new school could have hurt their livelihoods.

In the vicinity of Rabbi Yosef, these claims are denied.

The slaughter school is stuck for the time being, and all the trainings planned through it have been canceled.

"For reasons that are not clear, it was decided to close the slaughter school," wrote Deputy Minister of Religions Matan Kahana (right) after the decision.

"This will leave the slaughterhouse market small and expensive."

Senior officials in the religious services say that running a slaughter school is "critical" to lowering the price of meat in Israel.

"It should be understood - as long as there are no more slaughterers, the price will continue to be higher. The slaughterhouse will accelerate the training of qualified slaughterers and make the cost of living easier."

The most significant shortage in the field of slaughter is felt in the number of team leaders.

These have taken advantage of supply and demand laws in recent years and have significantly increased their wage demands: from about $ 15,000 a month per staff member to $ 30,000 and up.

The wages are paid, as stated, by the importers, who bear the total monthly cost of all members of the slaughter team abroad: NIS 500,000-400,000.

Advocate Amichai Pilber, who until 2015 served as director of the meat import and slaughter department abroad at the rabbinate, says that "already eight years ago there was a huge shortage of team leaders, external inspectors and internal inspectors. This means that there is no one to replace them. Almost unlimited. "

Pilber claims he has been pushing for years to regulate the field, but to no avail.

“When I left the department I left a document of recommendations to improve its work, including a proposal to regulate the work of slaughter crews and their wages, shorten the period of their stay abroad and reduce the regulation on meat importers.

"To this day, the rabbinate has not examined even one of my recommendations, nor has it formulated other solutions, except for the establishment of the slaughter school, which seems to me more like a spin.

Adv. Amichai Pilber. Prepared a detailed report with recommendations for streamlining, Photo: Hadas Porush / Flash 90

Huge salary for Macher

Green grass and trees surround a compound that looks from the outside like a standard factory.

These are slaughterhouses in one of the South American countries, which supply tons of meat to Israel.

Inside the appearance is more difficult: cows are led one after the other and slaughtered quickly.

Exterior and interior inspectors examine the animals after the blood has run out of their bodies, and decide whether the meat is kosher or prey.

On a board reminiscent of bingo games they mark: Jews are allowed to eat this meat - and they are not.

The slaughtered meat is then transported in trucks to ships - and from there to Israel.

A slaughter team slaughters about 11,000 head of cattle every month, an average of 500 a day, 22 days a month.

Each head of beef produces about 250 kg of meat to eat, about 2.75 million kg each month.

Despite the fact that the meat market rolls in billions, it is considered particularly concentrated.

According to an internal document of the Chief Rabbinate obtained by Shishvat, only 31 importers actually import fresh meat to Israel, some of the best-known companies in the market.

Some importers provide manpower services to other importers, at the same time, which means that in practice the market is even more concentrated.

An inspection conducted by Coral Tov-El, MK Malinowski's parliamentary assistant, ahead of the Religious Affairs Committee's deliberations, revealed that only eight importers have applied for imports of fresh meat quotas in the past two years. In the Knesset debate, in response to a question from MK Malinowski, a representative of the Ministry of Economy confirmed that "this is a very limited list of importers, who can be counted on less than two hands."

Into the already complex tangle come the machers, who over the years have become significant factors, even if unofficial, in the whole apparatus.

"External people arrange the slaughter teams and actually determine who goes out and who does not," admits one of the importers we spoke to.

"They, the makers, determine, and the importer has no say in the matter. Close with the maker how much the staff members pay, and the closer the maker is to the rabbinate - the lower the salary agreed upon, because they know who to talk to. These makers earn 50,000 shekels a month. "Almost without working. It's crazy."

The importer refuses to be revealed in his name because, he says, it could harm him "massively".

"People told me, 'Do not talk, they will mark you.' I take care of my business. I invest tens of millions, and who will compensate me later? "Okay and who's not, and they have methods to take the kosher from you if you are not okay with them."

MK Yulia Malinowski. "No one knows how they are employed and how much they work," Photo: Oren Ben Hakon

"Like a Wild West"

According to the claims, people who are "marked" by the machinists are not sent to work abroad and thus lose the potential salary for the slaughter season. "Without money. It's an inconceivable thing," says MK Malinowski.

"I received a lot of inquiries from slaughterers. I understood from them that if you are not close to the plate, you have no option to go abroad and make a living.

But they are scared, they refuse to testify, and so far no one cares about them - they are transparent.

There is a problematic phenomenon here in which a very centralized group crushes everyone - both the slaughterers and the general public.

There is fear and terror there.

No one knows how they are employed, how much they work.

Wild west.

"The problem is not the slaughterers themselves, because as mentioned they are usually poor. There are activists who run the story, and we, the Israeli public, are captive and pay dearly for it. This is a very small group that controls something huge, a meat market worth NIS 27 billion. This raises concerns and suspicions. "That the business is not being run properly, and the deeper we go, the more we find out.

During a discussion in the Committee on Religious Affairs, Rabbi Avi Zarki, a well-known butcher, said that he too was exposed to seemingly problematic scenes.

“I was the youngest butcher to go abroad, I learned to slaughter from big butchers, but even then, years ago, I saw failures.

I was told, 'Shut up if you want to continue going abroad. If you talk - you will be erased forever.' There are slaughterers who are not supposed to go abroad at all, because they are too old.

I know one 80-year-old, diabetic, fainting, and still going out as a team leader.

This phenomenon is horrible and terrible. "

Along with the payment of wages, the importers need to take care of all the shortages of the slaughterers and staff abroad. Of overseer overseas, and for many months.

"In South America, crews have no expenses out of their own pockets. They come without a toothbrush, even without underwear. We, the importers, provide them with everything, from A to T," says the importer we spoke to.

To be fair, it should be noted that the basic conditions of slaughterers abroad are not particularly luxurious, and it is not a question of accommodation in luxury hotels but in various hostels.

The question is what exactly do the importers provide to the crew, under the obscure definition of “everything”.

"People who participated in slaughter teams abroad said that 'everything' used to include things that were not really suitable for full-time slaughterers, not even for religious people."

Other sources say that they drank alcohol, took drugs and even local escort girls who were allegedly invited for the slaughter.

"A decade ago I was in South America, and there was a group of overseers there. They did drugs, spent time with escort girls, whatever you wanted. You see things and rub your eyes in astonishment," testified a man who saw, he said, with his own eyes a dubious conduct of staff abroad. To.

According to rabbinical practices, slaughterers are not allowed to go to the city closest to their place of residence, but slaughterers with whom we spoke in India were cases in the past where they did not obey instructions, as it is a long way from Israel.

"If a team leader turns a blind eye, you can do whatever you want," the slaughterers explain.

MK Malinowski: "Importers testified to me that they pay for everything - from toothbrushes to escort girls.

From underwear to 'personal services'.

They say there is nothing to do, the men are there a long time without their women at home.

"There are many problem areas. This raises a very strong suspicion of misconduct by people involved, such as the question of how the funds are transferred abroad and who oversees it.

I was told in response to my question that 'what happens abroad - stays abroad'.

I'm not sure that some of the meat that our writers have is really good quality kosher, according to the way this business is run. "

In this context, it should be noted that the control that the Chief Rabbinate can exercise over slaughterers abroad is very partial.

Although an importer who wants to take a slaughter team abroad must obtain a permit from the section manager, and also a briefing from him before the crew travels, the communication afterwards, by nature, is not perfect.

According to the Chief Rabbinate, each week the Overseas Slaughter Section receives weekly updates from team leaders, which include the quantities of slaughter, the number of pieces of meat packaged according to "kosher" or "portion" classification and a report on the amount of prey slaughtered meat. , In problems between staff members and importers and among themselves, as well as in disciplinary problems of staff members. In the past, attempts were made to network factories abroad with cameras, but technical problems prevented most of the move.

In an extensive report written by Pilber a few years ago, as part of the Ecclesiastical Forum (a right-wing conservative body that deals with various public areas), he noted that the information the overseas slaughter section has on staff is very partial, "and sometimes comes down to name and phone number."

According to Pilber, the data obtained from team leaders is handwritten in a weekly summary report sent to the department by fax machine - sometimes a few days late.

Pilber warned in a report that it was very difficult for the director of the department to supervise the work of the team from Jerusalem, so the chief rabbinate decided to run a system of supervision of the slaughter teams. Are in separate countries.

In response to Shishvat's request regarding the alleged moral problems, the chief rabbinate stated that "the team leaders sign an ethical code in which they undertake to act in accordance with the procedures."

MK Malinowski: "Importers have testified to me that they pay the slaughter crews for everything from toothbrushes and underwear to 'personal services'.

They say there is nothing to do about it.

These are problematic areas, which raises a strong suspicion of misconduct. "

"New Import Law"

According to MK Malinowski, she is working to pass a law under the Arrangements Law that will allow kosher meat to be imported from Israel from recognized kosher organizations around the world. The idea, she says, is to allow kosher organizations to create competition while maintaining a sufficient level of kosher. , And eventually fell due to the fall of the government.Malinowski promises to advance the issue in the next Knesset as well, of course if she is in a position to do so.

Until the area is settled, it seems that all of us, the consumers, will continue to pay, and dearly, for the poor conduct of the meat kosher market.

The Chief Rabbinate stated:

"The Chief Rabbinate of Israel oversees the slaughter and kosherness of meat imported into Israel in accordance with the Meat Law, which generally prohibits the import of meat that is not kosher to Israel.

"In addition, every season inspectors from the Chief Rabbinate are sent to inspect slaughterhouses in various countries around the world, to check the correctness of slaughter, training and implementation of rabbinical procedures. The rabbinate is conducted responsibly, professionally and thoroughly to ensure reliable kosher meat.

"The matter of establishing a slaughter school is currently in internal fictional rabbinate.

"The chief rabbinate has no involvement in determining the salaries of slaughter crews. The role of the chief of staff is important, and a heavy responsibility rests on his shoulders.

The head of the team is responsible at the halakhic and professional level for the implementation of the kosher practices of the Chief Rabbinate in the place, to ensure the kosherness of the meat.

Based on the activities of the slaughter team led by the head of the team, the Chief Rabbinate issues a kosher certificate for meat, as a condition for its marketing as kosher in Israel.

"The slaughter teams certified by the Chief Rabbinate are God-fearing people, doing their job under difficult conditions. We protest against the unfounded allegations and defamations designed to cast doubt on their integrity or cleanliness.

"Regarding the allegations regarding the examiner who works abroad: it is not at all clear whether the issue raises a legal difficulty, but, as a precaution, the issue is being examined by the Legal Bureau.

"Regarding the allegations raised in your application regarding the receipt of funds, allegedly, by an examiner, these are allegations that arose in the past and that the rabbinate responded to. The procedures. We emphasize that after examining the matter at the legal level, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel did not find it appropriate to take steps beyond that. "

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Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2022-07-21

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