“Europe’s Black Day”: Jewish and Muslim communities are concerned about the infringement of their rights

The European Court of Human Rights has upheld bans on halal and kosher slaughter in Belgium. The rabbi called it a “dark day for Europe” amid fears that other countries would follow suit. Critics of the ban fear it infringes on religious practice.

Europe’s highest court of human rights (ECtHR) has ruled that bans on ritual killings in parts of Belgium can remain in place, ending the hopes of Jewish advocates who said the restrictions were an unfair attack on Jewish culture.

To recap, two of Belgium’s three regions banned non-stunning slaughter in 2017 and 2018, saying the practice was cruel to animals. Stunning before slaughter is prohibited in both shechit, the Jewish ritual slaughter of livestock, and zabiha, the Muslim method of slaughtering animals for food.

The bans add Belgium to a number of EU countries where ritual slaughter is illegal, including Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Slovenia. The Netherlands briefly joined the list in 2011, but the Dutch Senate overturned the ban in 2012, citing religious freedom. Poland also outlawed ritual slaughter in 2013, but has since lifted the ban to include only meat for export.

In recent years, opposition to shekhita and zabiha has expanded beyond animal rights activists, as parties have begun promoting bans as part of their political line.

Israel’s ambassador to Belgium called the decision “catastrophic and a blow to Jewish life in Europe.” But last year, the EU envoy to combat anti-Semitism invited Jews and Muslims to discuss meat production with EU officials, in what some of the Jews present described as progress on religious freedom.

Now the European Court of Human Rights has dashed those hopes by upholding the bans in a ruling that closely mirrors the EU ruling adopted in 2021.

“The protection of animal welfare is an ethical value to which modern democratic societies attach increasing importance and which should be taken into account when assessing restrictions on the outward manifestation of religious belief,” the seven judges acknowledged in their opinion.

The decision does not apply across Europe, but is seen as an important precedent for other countries that might consider banning ritual slaughter.

“Restrictions on fundamental aspects of Jewish freedom of expression, coupled with a massive increase in anti-Semitic attacks against Jewish communities, force us to seriously question whether Jews have a future in Europe,” Ariel Musicant, head of the European Jewish Congress, said in a statement.

He added: “We are already seeing attempts across Europe to follow this Belgian ban, which unfortunately has now been legitimized by the ECHR. Jewish communities now more than ever need the protection of national governments and pan-European institutions to ensure that millennia of Jewish life on this continent do not come to an abrupt end.”

The chairman of the Brussels-based European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, stressed that “the verdict implies a distortion: the rights of citizens to freedom of religion are even less than those of animals.”

He warned that restrictions on Jews practicing their faith would lead to “serious damage to the fabric of life throughout the continent.”

Conference of European Rabbis President Pinchas Goldschmidt called the decision “a dark day for Europe,” adding that “Europe’s Jewish and Muslim communities will continue to fight for religious freedom and equality, but the task has now become even more difficult.”