The Dutch government is looking to exempt a local kosher slaughterhouse from laws prohibiting the export of meat that slaughtered without stunning, according to the JTA.
The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs indicated in response to a JTA query that it may take "special circumstances” into account. The Kosher Slagerij Marcus abattoir has indicated that it would likely go out of business should it be prohibited from continuing to export its products abroad.
A number of religious groups, including the Organization of Jewish Communities in the Netherlands, signed an agreement with the government allowing faith groups to continue to slaughter without stunning, which is otherwise prohibited in the Netherlands, but only if the amount produced “not exceed the actual needs of communities present in the Netherlands.”
Despite the Slagerij Marcus abattoir’s concerns however, the Organization of Jewish Communities in the Netherlands has stated that it believes such worries to be “unfounded.”
Meanwhile, the leadership of the third largest party in the country recently told JTA that they did not have a position on circumcision, after two of its younger members calling for a ban on the ritual, at least as it is traditionally practiced.