There has been a huge amount of internet traffic regarding the NZ Government regulation on meat production (currently suspended pending court action by the NZ Jewish community) which mandates stunning before slaughter, rendering any kosher slaughter to be unsuitable for consumption.
It was quickly remarked that it would not take long for this issue to gain traction in other countries. It was drawn to the attention of JewglePerth that this issue was raised approximately one year ago in the Australian Parliament. Sure enough, the West Australian Parliamentarian who happens to be the most outspoken critic of Israel in the current House of Representatives (just saying….), puportedly had this to say:
A Labor backbencher, member for Fremantle Melissa Parke, tabled a question in Parliament last week asking why exemptions to the ritual slaughter standard were granted and what consultations had taken place with religious groups.
Ms Parke told The Age she believed all slaughter for meat production, ritual or otherwise, should require stunning under the Australian standard.
‘‘There is no excuse for the mistreatment of animals, especially when ritual slaughter for religious reasons can be – and is being – conducted in keeping with humane animal welfare standards.’‘
She said her view was consistent with Labor Party principles and that at the recent ALP conference the party had adopted an animal welfare protection statement stipulating that animals should be treated humanely.”
Watch this space. If the New Zealand Government are successful in preventing its Jewish citizens from preparing meat in accordance with their tradition, the same issue will very quickly be placed onto the agenda of Australian meat processing regulations. There is so much ignorance on the part of those who act name of animal welfare, and maybe they genuinely believe that the barbaric meat production of regular slaugherhouses is preferable to shecitah. Anybody who has been involved with shechitah will attest that such an assertion is absolute nonsence. But this aside, it sure is convenient that what the animal rightists propose has the effect of removing religious freedom of practice for Jewish people. Just saying….
Post Update:
Steven from New Zealand writes as follows:
I wonder whether all the discussion about shechita, stunning, no stunning, rabbinical ruling and so on is not a distraction from the real troublesome issue. Why would a senior politician take it into his head, just in May this year, to go against the recommendations of his advisers and ban shechita. Shechita was not a new practice, the Jewish community arrived at a comfortable modus vivendi many years ago, whereby it can do shechita for its own use, on a very small, insignificant scale, but not on a larger scale for export.
Politicians don’t make such decisions lightly on a whim. What prompted the Minister of Agriculture to do it, what were the pressures put on him. Was it a coincidence that the EU wanted to legislate to label meat that was from beasts not stunned at about the same time, or that NZ signed a trade agreement at about the same time with the United Emirate, which soon fell over because of the live sheep export issue.
If I am paranoid I don’t apologise, Jews who are perceived as paranoid are often the realists. Is this whole issue part of the world-wide war against the Jews? The Jews of New Zealand are particularly vulnerable, they are few in number, they don’t speak with a united voice, and in May they didn’t even have a rabbi to speak for them.
Whatever this issue is, it is not an animal welfare issue. Ask a beast whether she would rather be electrocuted or have her throat slit she would say neither, thank you. A Minister of Agriculture who is comfortable with caged chicken farming, or factory pig farming cannot go trumpeting NZ’s proud record of animal welfare.
SAFE, the animal welfare group, arguing for banning shechita, showed on their website a while ago vicious looking knives in the hands of Jewish slaughtermen that reminded me of the canards about Jews slaughtering Christian children to use their blood for Passover.
The crude attack of Tsarist secret agents or Nazi thugs on Jews is now deemed unacceptable. But in one form or another, the war against Jews is continuing.
New Zealand is the first country in the world to ban shechita since the Nazis did this in the 1930s. This is a political issue and has to be fought as such during election year next year. Discriminating against Jews is a step towards discriminating against other minorities, and it goes to the very heart the perception of New Zealand as a tolerant multicultural society.
Don’t be complacent.