Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked slammed Denmark Friday over the decision to ban kosher slaughter, calling the move "the height of hypocrisy."
Danish Agricultural Minister Dan Jorgenson signed on the law Thursday, which bans slaughtering animals without first stunning them, a move which renders animals un-kosher by Jewish law. "Animal rights precede any world religion," Jorgenson claimed at the signing.
Shaked attacked the hypocrisy of such a statement in light of recent events in Israeli law.
"There was a move in the Israeli Knesset to ban fur imports into Israel on grounds of animal cruelty," Shaked explained. "The Danes, who kill the world's largest animals for fur on a regular basis, warned Israel against being the 'light unto the nations,' saying that a ban would begin a 'slippery slope' [for bans in other countries]."
"To slaughter animals for fur - permitted, but to slaughter animals for food is prohibited," the MK lamented.
The ban is largely symbolic, because there are currently no kosher slaughterhouses in Denmark. Nearly all meat for the country's small Jewish community is imported. Despite this, the country's 6,000 Jews inundated government offices with protests over the ban.
In addition, Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi David Lau and Religious Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett have already vowed to fight the edict.
With the ban, Denmark joined a slew of other countries in Europe that have already banned kosher slaughter, including Poland, Holland, Switzerland and others.