POLES are sensitive to the charge they are anti-Semitic. That’s the implication many derived from the reaction in Jewish circles to the Polish parliament’s decision to reject the government’s attempt to allow abattoirs to resume the recently banned ritual slaughter of animals. In a statement on July 15th, Israel’s foreign ministry said: “Parliament’s decision to reject a bill allowing kosher slaughter in Poland is totally unacceptable. Poland’s history is intertwined with the history of the Jewish people. This decision seriously harms the process of restoring Jewish life in Poland."

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk (pictured), said such a reaction was “inappropriate”. In a rare show of solidarity, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the country’s main opposition party, Law and Justice, said today: “It’s not often I agree with him but here I do, I think that the (Israeli) ambassador should be summoned and receive strong instruction.”

Israel’s reaction followed condemnation of Poland from the Anti-Defamation League and the European Jewish Congress. Poland’s own Jewish and Muslim communities also criticised the MPs’ decision, while the Polish chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said he would resign if a solution were not found. “This idea gained popularity in Europe in the ‘30s of the past century, when under the influence of Nazi propaganda, Norway and Sweden banned ritual slaughter. Poland will now be the first EU member state in which such a ban will not be the consequence of Nazi-era regulations,” Rabbi Schudrich and Piotr Kadlcik, the head of the Union of Jewish Communities of Poland wrote in a statement.

On July 16th, Gazeta Wyborcza, a daily, devoted three columns to the issue, one of which was headlined, “Why such a fuss?” In his blog on Monday, Jaroslaw Makowski, a columnist, wrote, “I became an anti-Semite. Why? Because I oppose ritual slaughter.”

Anti-Semitism still exists in Poland (as it does in many other European countries) despite the fact the Nazis murdered 90% of the country’s Jewish community, which was then the largest on the continent, during the Holocaust. Yet on the other hand younger Poles, especially, express a growing interest in and nostalgia for the lost Jewish culture.

Parliamentarians did not use anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim arguments in the debate preceding the vote in parliament on July 12th. The few who spoke focused on the government’s lust for money. Until the ban Polish slaughterhouses earned an estimated €250m ($329m) annually exporting kosher and halal meat to the Middle East, overriding a need to prevent cruelty to animals. Under Jewish and Muslim law animals have their throats cut, rendering them unconscious, before bleeding to death. In most European abattoirs animals are now stunned, electrocuted or gassed before being killed.

The surprising thing about the vote on July 12th is how many MPs supported animal rights. Poland is not a country hitherto known for championing animal rights. Hunting of animals for sport remains popular. Every December, supermarkets and market stallholders keep carp alive in extremely cramped conditions to satisfy the Polish tradition of buying a live fish so that it can be freshly slaughtered just before dinner on Christmas Eve.

More than half, including 37 MPs from Mr Tusk’s party, Civic Platform, voted against the bill that would have restored ritual slaughter for both religious and export purposes. Parliamentarians from Mr Kaczynski’s party were ordered to vote against the government, perhaps sensing an opportunity to embarrass the government, which has fallen behind it in recent polls. “Rejecting the bill, which obviously discriminates against Jews and Muslims, is hypocrisy of Himalayan proportions,” Konstanty Gebert, a columnist, told Eastern Approaches.

Mr Tusk admitted ritual slaughter had been a problem for his party, Civic Platform, since the beginning. In November last year the constitutional court ruled that a 2004 amendment to a Polish law banning the slaughter of animals without prior stunning was illegal. On January 1st, an EU Directive making prior stunning a requirement, came into force, although each member state could apply for a derogation in cases of religious slaughter. Poland apparently applied, unsuccessfully.

The government then drafted the bill to restore ritual slaughter that was rejected last week. To complicate matters, kosher slaughter has not stopped altogether since the ban entered into force at the beginning of the year. Poland’s Jewish community is using a 1997 agreement between itself and the state, which allows religious slaughter. The practice’s legal status remains unclear. Mr Tusk said the government would return to the issue on religious, but not on trade, grounds. It’s likely the constitutional court will be asked to rule on it, but that will take months.

In the meantime, things are likely to remain ugly. Since the fall of communism in 1989 Poland has become one of Israel’s biggest supporters in the EU. This ban will test that friendship.