The High Court of Justice gave the Chief Rabbinate Council a week to reconsider its policy of allowing local rabbinic councils to make their own decision on whether to allow produce grown on land sold to a non-Jew using a halakhic loophole allowing the sale of Jewish land to a non-Jew in the sabbatical (shmita) year.

The High Court objects to the Chief Rabbinate Council's decision to allow local rabbinates independence on this issue. Local rabbis who oppose the arrangement would give kashrut certification only to businesses in their city that agree to import produce.

Agriculture Minister Shalom Simchon this month threatened to ban produce imports if local rabbinates acted on their threat to withdraw the certification of using farmers using the halakhic loophole, known as "heiter mechira".