Olmert: Don't turn leavened food debate into cultural war

'During my stint as mayor of Jerusalem, I learned that religious and secular Jews must live in harmony,' PM says in response to court ruling allowing restaurants to sell bread on Passover. Livni: Tensions result of haredi parties' monopoly over Jewish affairs
Roni Sofer

The recent Jerusalem municipal court ruling according to which restaurants are not public domains and can thus sell bread and leavened goods on Passover "should not be made into a cultural war," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the cabinet on Sunday.

Controversial Ruling

Ruling: Stores allowed to sell bread on Passover / Aviram Zino

New court ruling indicates that pizza parlors, restaurants, grocery stores are not ‘public arenas’ by law, can sell leavened goods on Passover

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The ruling caused a storm within Israel's religious sector and brought the debate regarding the relationship between state and religion back to the forefront.

Minister of Religious Services Yitzhak Cohen (Shas) said in response to the ruling that "authorizing the selling of leavened foods on Passover is akin to pointing a gun to Israel's head".

Olmert continued to say that "during my stint as mayor of Jerusalem, I had Mea Shearim (ultra-Orthodox neighborhood) on the one hand, and secular and Arab neighborhoods on the other. I learned that we must all live side by side."

Foreign Minster Tzipi Livni said during the cabinet meeting that "most of us do not observe the mitzvahs, and I disagree with the haredi parties on many issues, but we have an interest in upholding the values and symbols of the Jewish state.

“Unfortunately, ever since religious parties began to monopolize Jewish matters in a manner that concerns itself only with religious issues and inflated budgets for religious interests, tensions have arisen between the secular and religious communities in Israel," she said.

"This tension and animosity has eroded what should be a central concern: Preserving each Israeli’s sense of Jewish identity irrespective of the specific concerns and interests of the haredi community.”