JERUSALEM, March 12 (JTA) — An Israeli court has ruled that shops cannot sell pork because Jews hate pigs. “Over the course of history, pork has become a symbol of national repugnance for the Jewish people,” an Israeli magistrates court judge wrote in the ruling, which upheld a ban on selling pork in Ashkelon. His decision made some 16 shops in the city guilty of violating a municipal by-law barring the sale of pork. All stores that sell pork in the city would now be criminally liable. The Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported Wednesday that the municipality has been fighting a battle for the past four years against the businesses in an attempt to enforce a 1956 city statute restricting the sale of pork. Defense lawyer Alexander Shmerling said that “for a democratic country at the end of the 20th century to rule on what people can and cannot eat is intolerable.” Shmerling said he would appeal the ruling.
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