Ministers approve controversial 'Hametz Law' for preliminary reading in Knesset

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation on Sunday approved a number of controversial laws to be brought before the Knesset for their preliminary reading, including the "Hametz Law" to prohibit hametz in hospitals on Passover and the "Rabbinical Courts Law" and the law that would broaden the jurisdiction of religious courts.

The "Hametz Law," proposed by United Torah Judaism MKs Moshe Gafni, Yaakov Asher and Yitzhak Pindros, makes it illegal for hospitals to enter or hold hametz (leavened bread) during Passover, and authorizes hospital directors to appoint someone to enforce this. The law would not apply to hospitals that do not define themselves as being kosher.

The issue of hametz in hospitals is an issue that has come up every year in recent years. It even served as the official trigger for then Yamina MK and current Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman to quit the previous coalition last April, a move that cost it its majority and destabilized the government, which fell two months later. Then Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz prohibited hospital directors from checking for hametz at the entrance in line with a High Court ruling on the matter, and Silman left the coalition in protest.

The law to broaden the jurisdiction of religious courts was proposed by UTJ MKs Gafni Asher and Uri Makleb, as well as Shas MK Yinon Azulay. It gives religious courts the power to serve as arbitrators in civil cases if both sides agree to this, and serves as an expansion of religious courts' current jurisdiction over marital status, burial and conversion.

Proposed judicial reforms

Gafni linked these laws to the government's proposed reform of Israel's judicial system.

"Hospital directors had the option to prohibit hametz on Passover, which is critical for the patients and for society, and the High Court intervened without authority," Gafni said after both bills passed the ministerial committee. "In the Rabbinical Courts Law as well, when it is an arbitration that both sides agree that it be held in the rabbinical court, the High Court intervened and ruled that both side's agreement does not matter, and prevented it without authority.

"This is additional proof how far the High Court goes in its intervention in subjects that are not under its jurisdiction. Today we are fixing this with legislation that will be brought later on this week to the Knesset plenum," Gafni said.

Yisrael Beytenu chairman and former finance minister MK Avigdor Liberman responded on Twitter, "Put simply, the rabbinical courts will be able to hear civil and economic cases and rule according to the Torah, the halakha and their own discretion.

"The rabbinical courts already today are funded by an enormous sum of approximately NIS 200 million, funds which would have been better off investing in adding positions to the judicial system that would assist in speeding up legal and bureaucratic procedures that all Israelis encounter.

"When we return to power will return to normalcy. Whoever chooses to turn to the rabbinical courts may do so privately, without funding from taxpayers and the middle class," Liberman concluded.