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Bezeq to fund Israel's largest campaign to stop smoking 

The recent round of cuts and restructuring at Bezeq (TASE: BZEQ) appear to have had little effect on the welfare benefits it provides its staff. The company's welfare department recently announced that it would be financing a new scheme to help employees give up smoking. The program will be offered in cooperation with Abramson Clinics, a rehabilitation institute specializing in smoking cessation. As far as is known, this is the biggest smoking addiction program ever conducted in Israel.

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'Children abused with cigarette burns'  

A 45-year-old man from Ramle is under arrest for abusing his eight children, aged 5-12, with his girlfriend, 36, police said Monday.

According to suspicions, the father would beat the children with a pipe and would burn cigarettes on them as punishment.

The allegations were uncovered as a result of a complaint submitted to the city's welfare services.

The father, who was responsible for raising his eight children along with his girlfriend, had long been suspected of routine abusive behavior.

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• Rabbis to battle smoking in haredi public 

Leading rabbis and the Jerusalem Municipality have joined forces in a battle against the widespread habit of smoking in the haredi public, in light of studies indicating that the sector has the highest rate of smokers in Israeli society.

The Health Ministry and local haredi authorities will also take part in the effort.

In a campaign that will be launched Thursday, rabbis will issue halachic rulings banning smoking. The rulings will be posted on bulletin boards and buses, and published in the community's pamphlets.

The decision to launch the campaign ahead of Purim was based on the fact that during the holiday it is usually considered legitimate for children to smoke cigarettes. . . .

"Studies have shown that most haredi smokers smoked their first cigarette during Purim, as part of a defective practice which permits teenagers, and even children, to smoke on the holiday," Jerusalem Municipal Council Member Shlomo Rosenstein, explained.

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Knesset bans smoking at all IDF bases  

The Knesset plenum approved Tuesday an amendment to the Anti Smoking Law, prohibiting smoking in all IDF, police and Israel Prison Service facilities.

The bill passed its second and third readings with 11 MKs voting in favor and one MK – Moshe Sharoni (Pensioners Party) – voting against.

The amendment further stated that all security forces will have to set clear guidelines regarding the law's enforcement.

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• Soldiers are smoking mad over tobacco ban on IDF bases 

The IDF was handed an official order from the Knesset Tuesday - no more smoking on military bases or other security institutions, effective immediately.

The law, which passed a third and final reading in the plenum Tuesday, would eliminate the IDF's current exemption from the laws that ban smoking in public places.

Soldiers have already begun plotting to disobey the new orders, slamming the Knesset for "creating unnecessary legislature."

"The politicians who created this law have clearly never understood what it means to be in the army," said David, a 20-year-old Golani Brigade soldier from Haifa. "We're finally not living at home, under our parents' rules. We're adults, and smoking is a common and sometimes necessary thing for us to do to relieve tension."

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• Israel lax on WHO tobacco control  

On Tuesday, The Jerusalem Post sent to Health Ministry spokeswoman Einav Shimron-Greenberg an Internet link to the WHO's embargoed report including data on Israel's performance, which was not allowed for release until Thursday, and asked for comments on Israel's failure to implement many of the clauses. But the spokeswoman said on Thursday morning that ministry officials had still not seen the data.

"We are doing the best we can with the available resources to improve implementation of the convention," she said. "Specifically, we are now looking for ways to carry out the demand for setting a national policy. Regarding most of the instructions, including the six strategies, it is not black-and-white, and one can always do better. For example, when raising taxes, when is what a country does considered full implementation? There is no part of the convention that we don't intend to carry out."

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Half of world's kids are endangered 'passive smokers' 

A plea to parents and other adults not to expose children to tobacco smoke has been issued by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), whose members - including the Israel Cancer Association (ICA) - are marking International Cancer Awareness Day on Monday.

The only international non-governmental organization dedicated solely to global control of cancer, the UICC says that half of all children around the world are passively exposed to toxic cigarette smoke. . . .

The Health Ministry has not done anything to pass legislation that would make it illegal to smoke in a vehicle where children are passengers - even though some US states and other countries have done so - or to bar cigarette vending machines that are easily accessible to children. . . .

ICA director-general Miri Ziv added that 85% of lung cancer cases are directly due to smoking. "We call on all Israeli families to declare their homes and cars smoke-free." Ziv also urged parents to advise children to keep away from smoke at all times and in all locations.

According to the UICC, the countries with the widest child exposure to tobacco smoke - nearing 100% - are Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Georgia (in the former Soviet Union) and Croatia.

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• Herzliya contractor sues tobacco co Dubek 

A 51 year old contractor from Herzliya today filed with the Tel Aviv District Court a NIS 10 million lawsuit against tobacco company Dubek Ltd. He claims to be dying of lung cancer after years of smoking.

The petitioner said he began smoking Dubek cigarettes in his 20s because of the positive messages in the company's aggressive advertising campaigns. He said that the public believed the ads, which claimed a close link between smoking and enjoyment of life, success, and social acceptance. He said that he smoked two to three packs a day.

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• Knesset rejects Hendel's pro-smoking bill in preliminary reading 

A private member's bill that would have allowed restaurants and other eating places to set aside 20 percent of their area for smoking was rejected by the Knesset plenum on its preliminary reading on Wednesday.

The bill was presented by MK Zvi Hendel of the National Union-National Religious Party and voted down 30 to 25, with two abstentions.

If the bill had gone on to become law, it would have exposed nonsmoking employees to customers' smoke. . . .

Attorney Amos Hausner, chairman of the Israel Council for the Prevention of Smoking, said he was pleased by the vote as it projected an Israeli image of "a country that observes international commitments such as the World Health Organization Framework Agreement on Tobacco Control, protects public health and is concerned about workers.

"Not only most Western countries, but also Egypt and Turkey have passed strict laws that bar smoking in public places," he said. "If it had passed and go on to become a law, anyone who voted for it would be responsible for the diseases and suffering it would have caused."

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• Health minister mulls relaxing no-smoking law for restaurants 

Tobacco sales have dropped 12 percent since a strict no-smoking enforcement law went into effect in November, but longtime smoker and Health Minister Ya'acov Ben-Yizri says he will consider making accommodations for restaurant and cafe owners to accommodate complaining customers.

The new law significantly raised fines for violators and for the first time set fines for owners of public places who did not enforce the law.

As tables outside eating places (including on balconies) are regarded by legal experts as part of the premises, they view smoking there as prohibited as well. Ben-Yizri told a delegation of eatery owners he would "consider" allowing specific outdoor areas to have smoking customers, even though non-smoking customers would be sitting near them.

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• EDITORIAL: Ease up on smokers  

Israel has followed the rest of the Western world and decided to declare war on smoking in public places. This is the right step. After the storm in Ireland and now in France since the law took effect on January 1, smoking in public venues ceased in both those smoking countries and many others. In early November an amendment to the law banning smoking in public places in Israel went into effect, significantly increasing fines and expanding the ban to include bars, cafes and restaurants.

It seems that no law has ever been enforced in Israel with such speed and efficiency. An army of municipal inspectors invaded cafes and bars, as did dozens of activists and volunteers acting independently, filing suits in court against smokers. . . .

At the basis of the legislation against smoking in public places is the assumption that smoking in closed areas is a hazard for the customers and employees who do not smoke. The law is there to protect them, and that is a good thing. But when the ban was expanded beyond the closed areas, in places where the air flows freely, one gets the impression that hunting season has been declared on smokers amid an effort to punish them - a quarter of the population. This is unacceptable.

In addition to targeting the smokers, many businesses suffer economic damage. Some legislative initiatives, like that of MK Zvi Hendel, recommend the Spanish model, which calls for a quota of businesses where smoking is permitted. Such businesses will have signs declaring them places for smokers. Another option, more reasonable, is to allow smoking in open spaces. The smokers, however mistaken and damaging to themselves and others, have rights too. One of them is the right to light a cigarette in an open space without causing affront to other people.

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• Health Ministry blasts those who want to weaken anti-smoking legislation  

The Health Ministry voiced strong opposition on Tuesday to attempts to water down anti-tobacco legislation and said that if these attempts succeeded, they would seriously harm public health.

The ministry was commenting on a private member's bill proposed last week by NU/NRP MK Zvi Hendel, which would have allowed smoking in a fifth of the space of pubs, cafes and restaurants.

The Hendel bill was opposed Monday by a majority of the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, including Health Minister Ya'acov Ben-Yizri and Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, and therefore will not be a government-sponsored bill. However, it will still be presented for a preliminary reading before the Knesset plenum on Wednesday.

The proposal by long-time smoker Hendel is aimed at fighting back against successes by anti-tobacco legislation pushed by Likud MK Gilad Erdan and Israel Council for the Prevention of Smoking head Amos Hausner.

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Ministerial committee opposes relaxing anti-smoking laws 

The ministerial committee on legislation decided on Tuesday to oppose a bill that would allow smoking in 20% of bars and restaurants, making it very unlikely that the bill will pass in Knesset on Wednesday.

The bill's sponsor, MK Zvi Hendel (NU/NRP), who is himself a heavy smoker, expressed outrage

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Soldier stabbed after refusing to offer cigarette  

A 19-year-old soldier was stabbed Tuesday morning after refusing to give a group of people a cigarette.

According to the soldier, he was approached by a group of teens on his way to meet his girlfriend and after he refused to offer them a cigarette, they stabbed him in the knee and escaped.

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SARID: Let people breathe  

I candidly admit, to my shame, that I am a smoker. I smoke less than I did in the past and more than I should. . . .

Nevertheless, I am in favor of the law limiting smoking in public places; I always voted for it. No one other than myself should have to suffer for my weakness . . .

In fact, it is difficult to point out even one law in Israel that is properly enforced - from the Minimum Wage Law to the law ensuring free education. But the law on smoking in public places - that one is enforced energetically and with strange fervor. It is an open secret: Where there is neither will nor way to deal with serious business, they deal with little things, with foolishness.

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