The French-speaking Belgian region of Wallonia, which covers more than half the country, has been accused of assaulting Jewish rights after a parliamentary committee approved a bill banning animal slaughter without stunning – a move which would effectively outlaw stricter forms of kosher and halal slaughter.
In a unanimous decision, the region’s environment committee voted to advance the animal welfare measure which would prohibit “the ritual slaughter of animals” without prior stunning.
The European Jewish Congress released a statement describing the decision as “scandalous”, calling on the full parliament to reject the measure when it comes up for a vote later this month.
“We call on legislators to step back from the brink of the greatest assault on Jewish religious rights in Belgium since the Nazi occupation of the country in WWII,” congress president Dr Moshe Kantor said.
“This decision, in the heart of Western Europe and the centre of the European Union, sends a terrible message to Jewish communities throughout our continent that Jews are unwanted.”
The region would join New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Denmark in banning un-stunned slaughter.
Australian regulations require animals to be permanently or temporarily stunned before slaughter, but abattoirs can seek religious exemptions from state governments.
Some halal certification groups permit a method of ‘temporary stunning’ to ensure the animal is unconscious until its time of death, but many Jewish organisations have stricter interpretations of kosher rules.
The RSPCA says it believes there are eight abattoirs in Australia which have been granted full exemptions from any form of stunning on kosher or halal grounds.
The animal welfare organisation says it is “strongly opposed” to the practice, which it describes as cruel.
“Slaughtering an animal while fully conscious requires additional handling and restraint and means that the animal will experience pain associated with the throat cut and subsequent bleeding out,” the organisation’s website states.
Australian Jewish organisations argue that the practice is humane and that the animal doesn’t feel the incision.
