WJC slams EU and Belgian courts for religious slaughter ban

• Published date: 02 October 2021
• Author: JERUSALEM POST STAFF
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

"Today's ruling is a continued maneuver to discriminate against Belgium's Jewish and Muslim citizens," said Lauder. "By prohibiting religious slaughter without stunning, the Belgium Constitutional Court has placed a potentially terminal obstacle to continued Jewish communal life in Europe. This is not a matter of animal welfare, but the suppression of religious freedom and liberty that is guaranteed in Article 10(1) of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights.

"As antisemitism continues to surge in Europe and around the world, we cannot let instances of religious persecution like this go unchallenged. The European Union must reverse this ill-advised decision so that Jews, and other minority religions, can practice their beliefs without restrictions."

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On Thursday, the Constitutional Court of Belgium upheld a verdict by the European Court of Justice on legislation in Wallonia and Flanders banning religious slaughter without pre-stunning.

While the Constitutional Court of Belgium acknowledged that the verdict would result in a restriction of religious freedoms of Jews and Muslims, the ban "responds to a pressing social need and is proportionate to the legitimate objective pursued of promoting animal welfare. Furthermore, the possibility of reversible stunning during ritual slaughter cannot be interpreted as prescribing how a religious rite is to be performed."

On December 17, 2020, the European Union Court of Justice was presented with arguments by Jewish...