Finance Minister Israel Katz signed on Thursday a permit for the chief rabbis of Israel empowering them to sell all the leavened food products the state owns to Hussein Jabar, a non-Jewish resident of Abu Ghosh.
Such food is sold to a non-Jew for the duration of the holiday because Jewish law forbids Jews from owning it during the Passover holiday and the practical need of the State of Israel to have emergency supplies of food.
Such sales are common practice and are being made right now in other large Jewish communities.
“It is an honor for me to take part in a Jewish tradition which is thousands of years old,” Katz wrote.
Other users chose to poke fun at the minister following the Tuesday elections and growing reports that his Likud Party intends to cut a coalition deal with Ra'am Party leader Mansour Abbas.This means that the Likud would be partnering up with an Islamic Arab-Israeli party.
“How could you have missed a chance to sell the leavened bread to Abbas?” one user joked: “You have agreed to sell him all you have left already.”
Another user joked that Katz should get ready to sign on permissions for things Muslims find important “as that will come up in the negotiation process.”