Members of Knesset Tamar Zandberg, Mosi Raz, Michal Rozin and Ksenia Svetlova petitioned the High Court of Justice together with the secular Forum Association to allow patients to eat chametz in hospitals during Pesach.
Hospital security guards conduct a “security inspection” to ensure that food that is not kosher for Pesach doesn’t enter the hospital. Signs are placed at the entrances prohibiting food entry that is not fresh fruits and vegetables or packaged food with authorized supervision for Passover.
The petition states, among other things, “Israel is a democratic state in which every person has the basic right to freedom from religion, including the right to eat chametz on Pesach.”
They complain, as attorney Yair Nehorai claimed in their name, that “those who come at the gates of the hospitals are prevented from eating as they wish during Passover.”
The petition failed, with Attorney Neta Oren, who responded on behalf of the State Prosecutor’s Office, writing: “Today there is no statutory provision requiring hospitals in Israel to keep kosher during the year, and especially on Pesach, but since hospitals are among the institutions that provide essential public services to the general population, in order to be accessible to the population, which keep kashrus practices, especially for Pesach, these public institutions should be certified kosher all year round.
{Matzav.com}
