The Tzohar Kashrut Organization rejected the claims made by the Director General of the Ministry of Religious Services, Yehuda Avidan, regarding the validity of the license granted to the organization, asserting that the license was lawfully issued by the Director General of the Chief Rabbinate.
Tzohar stated: "The Director General of the Ministry of Religious Services has no authority whatsoever regarding the issuance of kashrut certificates. The only person authorized to issue a license for such certificates is the Director General of the Chief Rabbinate, who indeed granted the license to Tzohar."
The organization further argued that the Chief Rabbinate Council had been aware of its request for the license and had even addressed it in its response to the High Court of Justice: "The Rabbinate Council was aware of Tzohar's request for a license and responded to the High Court as a respondent to the petitions that were filed. For its own reasons, it chose to raise administrative arguments that have nothing to do with matters of kashrut."
According to the organization, "Hundreds of businesses certified by Tzohar, and especially their hundreds of thousands of customers, have been able since last night to eat at establishments certified as kosher by Tzohar under the authority and with the approval of the Chief Rabbinate."
The response came after Avidan sent an urgent letter to Deputy Attorney General Adv. Karmit Yulis and to the Chief Rabbinate's legal adviser, Adv. Ofer Yaakov, following a decision by Chief Rabbinate Director General Yehuda Cohen regarding the recognition of Tzohar's kashrut certification.
In his letter, Avidan clarified that the move had been carried out by circumventing the explicit provisions of the law and contrary to the position of the president of the Rabbinate Council: "Following an inquiry I conducted with Rabbi Kalman Bar, the Chief Rabbi and President of the Chief Rabbinate Council, I was informed that neither the Chief Rabbinate Council nor its president had been consulted on the matter or expressed any opinion regarding it."
He added: "Given these circumstances, the certificate issued to 'Tzohar - Food Supervision Ltd.' has no legal validity and cannot be relied upon. The proper procedure for issuing such a certificate must begin with the approval of the Chief Rabbinate Council of Israel. Only if it agrees may the certificate be written and rely on the Rabbinate's kashrut standard, which did not occur in this case."
The director general warned against creating facts on the ground and asked the Attorney General's Office to immediately halt the distribution of the approval: "I am turning to you urgently due to the swift actions of 'Tzohar - Food Supervision Ltd.' to distribute the approval among business owners. Dozens of requests have already been received from across the country seeking to make immediate use of the certificate in violation of the law."
"I ask you to instruct and announce that the certificate was issued unlawfully and has no legal validity, in order to prevent actions on the ground that would require us to deal with petitions and the like," Avidan concluded.