High Court suspends cities’ bans on pork sales

14/06/2004 By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent The High Court, ruling on challenges to municipal prohibitions and curbs on sales of pork in Tiberias, Karmiel and Beit Shemesh, Monday suspended the cities’ current restrictions, and ordered the city governments to enact new codes conforming to guidelines set down by the court. Among the guidelines was the principle of taking the character of individual neighborhoods into account when enacting restrictions on sales of non-kosher meat. The guidelines suggest that pork be allowed to be sold in neighborhoods where a negligible proportion of the population is seen as sensitive to such sales.


The struggle over the sale of non-kosher meat in municipal areas has become one of the most important legal battles touching on religious-secular relations in Israel. The unanimous decision was taken by an extended panel of nine justices. The immediate significance of the decision was that for the present, pork may be sold in all areas of the three cities. Friction over the bans has been keenly felt in communities with substantial populations of the Orthodox as well as immigrants from the former Soviet Union. „The High Court has driven a central nail in the coffin of Jewish identity in the state,” Israel Radio quoted Shas leader Eli Yishai as saying of the decision. The court also ruled that one month before the amended regulations take effect, they must be submitted to the petitioners in the current appeals – Likud and Shinui legislators, Beit Shemesh residents and others – to allow them the opportunity to submit new appeals if they choose. The legal challenges centered on the authority of municipal governments to curb pork sales. The regulations are based on the 1956 „Law of Authority,” which grants city governments special authority to enact pork bans. The petitioners had asked the court to quash the bans, or to limit them to „clearly religious areas.” In January, the court issued a temporary order barring the Tiberias municipality from enforcing its sweeping ban on pork sales. While in Beit Shemesh a municipal ban was limited to certain areas of the city, the Tiberias stature applied to all areas within the city limits.