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Belgium's Constitutional Court Upholds Ban on Jewish Ritual Slaughter
(European Jewish Press-Belgium) Yossi Lempkowicz - On Thursday, the Constitutional Court of Belgium upheld a ruling by the European Court of Justice that member states of the EU can ban religious slaughter. Jewish groups have condemned the ban on ritual slaughter which they see as a severe limitation on religious freedom. In 1933, one of the first laws the Nazis enacted was a ban on kosher animal slaughter. The Constitutional Court recognized that the general ban on slaughter without stunning entailed a restriction on freedom of religion of Jews and Muslims, whose religious laws prohibit the consumption of meat of stunned animals. But the court said the ban on slaughter "responds to a pressing social need and is proportionate to the legitimate objective pursued of promoting animal welfare." Yohan Benizri, president of CCOJB, the coordination committee of Belgian Jewish organizations, declared: "This is mostly a shame for our country....Are we to accept that hunting is permitted for cultural reasons in this country while a millennial presence in the region would not justify a similar exception?...Legally and politically, we will continue fighting this."