Rabbanut cracking down on Eida food establishments

The Rabbanut was recently strengthened by the decision of the Supreme Court authorizing its continued monopoly over kashrut, and specifically regarding the right to declare food as kosher.

Until now this has empowered the Rabbanut to continue to fight against private hechsherim such as Hashgacha Pratit. Now the Rabbanut is working to answer the claims of selective enforcement - they have begun cracking down on the "badatzim" - various Haredi established hechsherim - as well.

The Rabbanut has sent supervisors to Ramat Bet Shemesh B to scope out restaurants that might bear hechshrim from the various badatzim without also bearing a Rabbanut hechsher. All such food establishments that were discovered were issued warnings, and next time will receive fines of between 1000nis and 2000nis.

The Rabbanut says it began with the Haredi stronghold of Ramat Bet Shemesh, but will soon be expanding its enforcement efforts to other areas as well.

Eida Hachareidis people say this is no surprise and they are telling all establishments under their supervision that they must also obtain Rabbanut authorization, as per the law.
sources: Srugim, Kikar, Behadrei

If the Rabbanut decides to make the switch and get out of the kashrut business, functioning only as a regulator, it will save business owners a lot of money, as they will no longer need to pay for two hechshers. I would think each hechsher would probably need to pay a licensing fee to the Rabbanut, and then the cost to the business owner might go up a bit to cover that addition licensing fee, but it will probably still be cheaper than paying for two hechshers,.

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