First publication:
The State Attorney ordered the Israel Police to open an investigation into alleged serious failures in the meat market imported to Israel.
This follows an investigation published on the subject in the "Shishab" supplement in July 2022, which revealed a series of serious failures and even alleged suspicion of criminality in an organization that generates billions of shekels a year.
As part of the investigation, it was published how slaughterers receive their salary from the meat importers, to whom they are supposed to certify kosher, and how butchers decide who will be allowed to fly to slaughterhouses abroad and who will remain in Israel without a livelihood. The investigation also revealed that dozens of complaints were filed against one of the only two inspectors who approve for the slaughterers to serve in their position on behalf of the Chief Rabbinate, claiming that they were required to pay in order to receive the certificate that allows them to go abroad and slaughter.
"External people arrange the slaughtering teams and actually determine who goes out and who doesn't," admitted one of the importers we talked to.
"They, the machers, determine, and the importer has no say in the matter. They agree with the macher how much the team members are paid, and the closer the macher is to the rabbis - the lower the agreed upon salary will be, because they know who to talk to. These machers receive NIS 50,000 per month , almost without working. It's crazy."
The importer refused to be named because, according to him, this could harm him "massively".
"People told me, 'Don't speak, they will mark you.' OK and who is not, and they have methods to take away your kosher if you are not OK with them," he said.
Following the article and several discussions in the Committee for Religious Services on the subject, MK Yulia Malinovski (Ysrael Beytenu), then the chair of the committee, appealed to the Legal Advisor to the Government, with a request to open an investigation regarding the meat market in Israel.
Now, as mentioned, the state attorney has announced that an investigation will indeed be opened.
"In your application, you claimed that the system of kosher meat imported to Israel suffers from irregularities, and that it is personal economic interests that motivate those involved in the field, and not the concern for the quality of its kosher," replied Attorney Little Nitzan from the Deputy State Attorney's Office to MK Malinovski.
"Meanwhile, you claimed in your application that the conduct of several officials in the Chief Rabbinate, as well as officials working for the Rabbinate, raises suspicions of committing criminal acts, and therefore you requested to open an investigation procedure on the subject. - in relation to a number of issues - to the Israel Police".
In a conversation with Israel Hayom, MK Malinovski welcomed the decision. "Following the discussions that were held with me in the Religious Services Committee, the article that was published by you last July and the difficult findings that were discovered regarding the kosher system in the meat industry in Israel, I submitted at the time to the Ombudsman a request to initiate criminal proceedings against all the relevant parties I am glad that the deputy for financial enforcement in the prosecutor's office, and the state attorney, saw fit to transfer the investigation to the Israel Police.
"In light of the importance of the issue, both to the economy and to the citizens of Israel, I expect the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gabir, to take this seriously and place the investigation high on the police's list of priorities. It is time to put an end to corruption, combinations and the appointment of associates, which cost us all so much money ", she added.
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