ISRAEL’s one and only crematorium has gone up in flames after it was torched by arsonists believed to be Orthodox Jews.
After the attack on the facility, Yehuda Meshi Zavah who heads ZAKA, the Orthodox group best known for collecting Jewish body parts for burial after suicide attacks, said that although he opposed any act of criminality, he was nevertheless pleased with the outcome, given his organisation’s commitment to protecting the holiness of human bodies even after death
According to news reports, the attack took place hours after the crematorium’s secret location, on farmland outside Tel Aviv, was published in a fervently Orthodox newspaper, Kol Ha’ir.
The blaze set off recriminations within Israel’s political establishment. The Orthodox Shas Party moved to have a law passed banning cremation, while left-wing parliamentarian Yossi Beilin, who himself intends to be cremated after he dies, accusing the Orthodox of dragging Israel back to the “dark age.”
Eli Yishai, Shas’ chairman and the minister of Industry, Trade and Employment told Ha’aretz that the bill “would put an end to those who are implementing the final solution once again …”
Beilin, leader of the Meretz Party, countered that the bill would lead to a situation “in which civilians won’t even be able to decide what will happen to them after they die.”
Under the proposed legislation, anyone found guilty of cremation could be punished with up to a year in prison and a £3,600 fine.
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