The alertness of border police manning a checkpoint at the Ramot entrance to Yerushalayim prevented the smuggling of treif meats and fish into the capital, not to mention the health hazards that generally accompany the smuggled good originating in PA (Palestinian Authority) autonomous villages. In this case, the contraband weighed in at about 1,000 kilogram (2,200 lbs).

The police took notice of a truck heading towards the capital from Givat Ze’ev, stopping it for routine inspection. They felt one of the walls of the vehicle appeared “strange”, prompting a closer look, revealing a false bottom, which was hiding the frozen illegal cargo.

The packages of meat and fish were marked with Hebrew labels and were without a doubt intended for sale inside Green Line Israel.

The driver, an Arab resident of the capital, was placed under arrest. He admitted the products lacked any health inspections or standard.

Unfortunately, this is not a unique case, but fortunately, this time around the shipment was caught. As recently as the past year, one store in Machane Yehuda was selling neveila, chickens from Ramallah, as mehadrin kosher, and the so-called peace status with the PA has resulted in an influx of produce and food items that compromise both health and kashrus standards. This includes but by far is not limited to produce irrigated in sewage water, found to contain dangerously high levels of e-coli.

In the case of the store in Machane Yehuda, called Yehuda Chamutzim, the business was eventually closed, not due to kashrus, but due to the findings of inspectors of the Ministry of Agriculture, who documented the chickens originated in Ramallah. The store owner and salesmen all wore black velvet yarmulkes and attested to the quality and kashrus of their poultry products.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)