Categories
· Health/Science
· Society
· People
non-USA, by Country
· Israel
|
Jump to full article: Jerusalem Post, 2006-07-30
Author: Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 30, 2006
Intro: If cabinet ministers were chosen by public tender, the Gil Pensioners' Party's Ya'acov Ben-Yizri would be an unlikely candidate for health minister: He doesn't speak English, has only a high school education, is not computer literate, smokes like a chimney and will celebrate his 79th birthday in a few weeks. . . .
From time to time, especially when I press him about his smoking, he says "Judy! Judy! Judy!," reminding me of a Cary Grant impersonator . . .
Tobacco is a sensitive issue. Ben-Yizri, who has smoked 60 cigarettes a day (except Shabbat) since he was 18, says today he has the time and legal space to smoke only a third as many - and then only on the balcony of his office. Impressively, there are no ashtrays or tobacco odors in the room and - after allowing himself to be photographed smoking as a newly minted minister - Ben-Yizri has sworn he will not do so in public.
He admits he had not heard of the Gillon Committee, appointed seven years ago by then-health minister Shlomo Benizri and headed by Judge Alon Gillon to consider labeling tobacco and nicotine "dangerous drugs." Ben-Yizri is willing to consider backing legislation that will bar tobacco advertising in newspapers and magazines. He may also back the idea that proprietors of restaurants, malls and other places frequented by the public be fined if there is illegal smoking on their premises, and not only the smoker himself. But he prefers "education" about the evils of smoking to privatizing the job of enforcement so that enforcers will have the incentive to hand out fines.
Jump to full article » |