Israel is a country trained in suffering from terrorism. It’s therefore very common to meet guards at the entrances of public buildings and institutions, searching for hidden weapons (or other dangerous things) in the belongings of people entering the place.

Israel is also a country trained in suffering from self-religious coercion. Therefore, some of these guards – specifically in hospitals – have now been authorized to search not only for weapons, but also for… bread. Specifically, for “Chametz” during the seven days of Passover.

“Chametz” (also chometz, ḥametz, ḥameṣ, ḥameç and other spellings transliterated from Hebrew) are foods with leavening agents that are forbidden on the Jewish holiday of Passover — Thank you Wikipedia. However, now they are officially forbidden not only by the ancient Jewish God, but also by some hospital managers, by the power vested in them.

On top of the scandal of telling (actually forcing) private people what to eat, there are some other outrageous issued in this story. For example: Guards are officially authorized to search in my private things (not weapons or other dangerous things). Considering the fact that nowadays you can’t really tell “Chametz” from “Kosher for Passover” foods – the actual impact is forbidding you from bringing any type of food to your hospitalized loved ones. And that’s not all: What about non-Jewish sick people? Or non-Jewish employees of the hospital? (And there are many of them.)

But the legislators don’t really care. Soon: Authorizing local police to enforce no cars or electrical equipment on the streets during Yom Kippur?