TOI reports that two religion and state bills were approved in preliminary readings in the Knesset on Wednesday, one forbidding bringing leavened goods into public hospitals during the Passover holiday and another expanding the powers of rabbinic courts.

Both government-sponsored bills have met fierce resistance, including from some religious groups, which say they could antagonize Israelis against Judaism.

Legislation proposed by United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni would require public hospitals to ban leavened food items, known as hametz, during Passover. It was approved 60-49.

The bill is opposed by the Attorney General’s Office, which found that in its current form, the legislation goes too far and would be difficult to defend in court.

For years, most hospitals and other public institutions banned hametz during the week-long holiday — when Jews traditionally refrain from eating leavened goods — with some even instructing guards to search people’s bags for forbidden foods at the doors. But in 2020, the High Court of Justice declared that hospitals could not conduct such invasive searches, after years of pushing the government to find some compromise or pass some legislation on the issue, and last year the court issued a similar ruling regarding army bases.

Leavened products will still be permitted in medical centers that do not present themselves as being kosher, such as those that provide services to non-Jewish sectors of the population.

Source - TOI/Twitter - Image - Orel Cohen/Flash90