Israel is proposing to allow special areas in hospitals where people can chametz during Pesach.

The suggestion has been made in response to a legal challenge to the current ban on eating leaven in hospitals, Ha’aretz reported.

The challenge had been mounted by the Secular Forum and the Arab rights organisation Adalah.

An alternative idea of allowing people to use disposable utensils to eat chametz was rejected by the state as too difficult to operate while maintaining kashrut for Pesach.

But the Secular Forum remained unsatisfied. “The state is rejecting reasonable arrangements that have been proposed to it by the court,” the newspaper quoted it as saying. “The state is offering to allocate to those who want homemade food – kosher or not – a closed and isolated area on the edge of the hospital.”