Matzah. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

More Israelis believe that leavened foods should not be allowed into public institutions, such as hospitals and military bases, during the seven-day Passover holiday, a new survey found.

The poll, released Thursday by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), comes amid a heated public debate about the role of Jewish law in Israeli society. During Passover, Jews are traditionally forbidden from eating or owning leavened foods, known as chametz.

Almost half, or 49 percent, of respondents said visitors should not be allowed to bring chametz into hospitals, compared with 44 percent who said it should be permitted. Likewise, 58 percent of Israelis said chametz should be forbidden from military bases, versus 37 percent who believe it should be allowed.

Public hospitals and military bases across the country already keep their kitchens kosher for Passover. Yet the issue came to the fore after Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz reminded hospitals ahead of Passover to abide by a 2020 High Court decision, which ruled that hospitals cannot ban visitors and patients from entering their premises with chametz during the holiday.

The last thing a visitor or hospital patient needs is for security guards to “rummage through their bags and look for chametz. This thing is over,” Horowitz tweeted last week. “In the run-up to Passover, I instructed hospitals to adhere to the High Court ruling, not to rummage through bags looking for leavened foods, and not to prevent its entry.”

“We will respect everyone, according to their beliefs and values without hurting them and without coercion,” he added.

Horowitz’s move was met with harsh discontent by religious Yamina MK Idit Silman, whose unexpected resignation on Wednesday deprived the ruling coalition of its parliamentary majority.

A breakdown of the IDI poll by religious orientation showed that around 90 percent of Haredi, national religious, and traditional religious respondents said that it should be forbidden to take chametz into either hospitals or IDF bases. In contrast, among secular respondents, 74 percent said it should be permitted to take chametz into hospitals and 66 percent said it should be allowed on IDF bases.

The survey was conducted by the internet and telephone between March 29 and April 1 among a representative sample of 605 men and women interviewed in Hebrew and 156 in Arabic.