do you really think people will pay attention they will light up and pay the fine i wish they would also have laws for pelephones in public places

Self-reporting in surveys - do I smoke or not - is not reliable. Almost 70% of Americans say they voted for JFK, who won with less than 51% of the vote. Tax revenues are more reliable. How many cigarettes are sold each year?

Big tobacco is making a fortune pawning their niccotine to Israelis. It has become so much of the culture and a social event everytime a group lights up. They have achieved their positive reenforcement goals of attaching a pleasurable experience and pier pressure to a drug additicion, namely niccotine. The health cost to the Israel healthcare system will spiral out upwards as cancer becomes more predominant, such as in Bersheva. Israel must stop taking the money path of making big business out of cigarretes. Close the bordors to products with health issues, such as faulty chinese and cancer causing cigarettes. Bigger tarrifs! Make a pack of cigarretes cost 40₪. We need to do what the US implimented and start an ad campain against the "cool culture" of cigarettes. As a person who worked in the inner cities as a first responder, their is nothing cool about the ambulance arriving for a short of breath call to find some middle aged man dragging around oxygen bottles and a mask, so that he can barely experience life. We need to wisen up the Israeli society. I applaud the no smoking legislation, but will the police do anything about it?

It's good to read this. Having come from New York where this law was enacted in 2003, I had to reacclimate myself to smelling like crap after going to Israeli establishments. I've followed this trend in the US and Europe and you'll see a lot of complainers and whiners in the first couple of months, but after that people stop giving a crap and it really sets in. Carol, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have an "easy" $255 to part with every time I got caught smoking in a bar (if I were a smoker, which I'm not...). I don't think the average Israeli has it either, let alone the kids and soldiers.

Pay the fine ? 1000 NIS for the smoker and 5000 for the owner . They all will think about it . Let me tell you that in the Dizengoff center in Tel Aviv , i did'nt see any smoker this tuesday , contrary to what was currently seen before

Every time I breath the air around smokers, I daily think of my idea for a t-shirt...It reads on the front, "Did you realize that I have a genetic dispostion to cancer" On the back..."Thank you for not smoking". I am so pleased. I am an Olah Chadashah, and My father (a cancer survivor), is visiting Israel for the first time next week for my birthday. This new ordinance couldn't have come at a better time. I remember when I decided to make aliyah, thinking how I was going to be able to show my parents the amazing night life of my new home, without subjecting my father (and not to mention my mother, and myself) to the constant smoke which seems to plague the most interesting of bars. I feel like I'm dreaming. It's such great news. Thank you Israel.

Yep! Irish pubs all over Ireland are smoke free! So if the famous Irish pubbers can stop smoking indoors so can we. Go Israel Go!

The authorities let people get away with virtually anything and do you really thing that the local authorities will enforce the no smoking law? I am very skeptical but I hope that I am wrong. A point lacking in the law is a clause stopping people smoking outside the entrances of stores, supermarkets and Government offices from smoking. When you enter a store you have to go through a fog of cigarette smoke and the same when you leave. This goes directly to your lungs without the protect of a filter. The new law is commendable only if it is enforced and as we all know, here in Israel the law is regarded as a recommendation!

i agree that more can and must be done . Making smoking more expensive is not a solution , smokers will spend less on other , more necessary , products to buy their poison . It won't help reducing smoking by people who can afford to pay much more . What is needed is education , showing youth that smoking is not healthy . They think that by smoking they are a "man" , they will need to be a true "man" when they'll have to stop smoking . PS : what about my questions ? affraid to answer seriously without turning around the pot ?

as someone who never got a driving license and who mostly walks the car fumes are killing me daily if i can't smoke in public stop driving.

They picked the worst time to impose this law. Its cold outside who will want to stand outside in the cold and rain, better not to go to a bar.

Alcohol should be banned it leads to deaths in the road, violence, harms your body more then cigarettes. First close down all the factories emitting fumes in cities then you can justify a law such as this.

While i smoke and have written numerous talkbacks on this subject i am surprisingly against smoking in general. I am trying to quit after ten years of smoking and agree with cafes restaurants being somewhat smoke free. Bars are another matter. People go to bars to relax and enjoy themselves and for many drinking and smoking go together. Many people i know smoke and with this new law there is more chance they will cut down on drinking then smoking. Bars will lose money and whoever proposed this law should have to pay them the difference. Israel has enough problems and many use smoking as an out how can you take that away from them. NY here we come.

This is what the world is moving towards why not start now. Smoking Marijuana should be legal and if cigarettes cause so much harm then ban them altogether. Some MK's (cant think of who) are trying to pass law banning smoking in cars and even in the privacy of your own home because if you have children in harms them. Another MK from the NRP tried passing a bill to legalize medical marijuana in Israel. If a orthodox Zionist agrees with this wouldn't most further left of the spectrum agree. Welcome to communism.

people here could be killed by a suicide bomber or a shooting any day, and the Israeli and US governments have freed the terrorists, trained them and provided them with money and weapons. We should sue are respective government for something that really gets us killed. Start with Bush, Olmert and Perez

I am severely allergic to smoke so this new law is great for me

Municipality of Tel Aviv has a recording on their 106 hotline: "we are not taking complaints about smoking in public places as we don't know who is responsible for enforcing it." The police (not surprisingly) tell you to go to the municipality, and, failing that, the court system. Bars don't care. Dream on, Tel Aviv.

It's nice to see that Israel is following along with the rest of the modern world to protect it's citizens from the known hazard of second hand smoke.

ARE AROGANT & IF OVER 35/40 ARE A HOLES ! HOWEVER, TO MAKE PRIVATE BUSINESS OWNERS CAPO'S OF THE STATE , IN "OPTIONAL" ENVIRONMENTS WHEN THE CAPACITY TO FABRICATE ENVIRONMENTS OF REFUGE WITH A VERY GOOD EXAUST SYSTEM IS WELL WITHIN OUR MEANS , IS AN OVER STEPING OF AUTHORITY AND AN UNECCESARY INFRINGEMENT ON THE RIGHTS OF THOSE THAT ARE PREPARED TO ACCOMODATE THE COLLECTIVE CONCEARNS OF SOCIETY AT LARGE ! IN CASES OF REQUIRED VENUES SUCH AS BUS STATIONS,OFFICES,AND THE SUCH , LACK OF ENFORCEMENT IS CRIMINAL ON THE PART OF THE ADMINISTRATING AUTHORITIES !

Coming often in the Dizengoff center i can tell you that the two last times i came i haven't seen any smoker . In my town the great shopping mall has been since years smoking free . One of the great restaurants chains has a smoking area , and you have some small areas at the entrances. There are no town "pakachim" as far as i know , i have'nt seen anyone , but you don't see many smokers . I have seen only two in those years .

it would be good if they enforced the law in hospitals too

There is no such thing as a $255 fine in Israel, nor a $1,300 fine.The actual fines are NIS 1,000 & NIS 5,000 respectively. The latter would currently cost an American $1,266, but next week, who knows?

Making smoking more expensive has been found to be the most effective tool in getting people to stop smoking. The people who can afford to pay much more (and who are better educated) have a much lower smoking prevalence than the lower income (and education) groups., but even they respond to tax increases And many studies have shown that every time there is a tax increase a number of people stop smoking. But you're correct in maintaining that other things are effective as well, such as education, anti-smoking advertising and enforcement of bans of smoking in public places and the workplace, all of which have been shown to be effective to varying degrees.

"The great shopping mall." Give me a break. Charlse have you ever really been to Israel. If so have you been there in the last 10 years. Dizengoff center and the surrounding area is in the trendiest (hippy trendy not yuppie) part of town and a long way from Petach Tikvah. If you want to see a good mall, go to givataym, its amazing, massive and brand new plus its closer to the place you claim to live. Or you could go to the one even closer, the Ramat Gan mall on the border of Beni Brak which has been renovated. Or you could travel a little wasy down the 5 and hit the Cinema City mall which is nice or a bit further and see the Arena mall which is a theme mall done up like ships and has a yacht club in its back yard. All of these are far nicer than decades old Dizengoff center. I would venture to guess the Dizengoff center area has the highest smoker ratio compared to anywhere in the state. The mall is old and by far not "great". Maginal at best even after the fire and renovation. If you only saw two smokers you must have gone on Yom Kippur! You try to flex information you dont have. Did you read about Dizengoff center on google or from an old travel book? You cant go into Dizengoff center and not see at least ten people smoking and this is just the people who work in the shops. They have ashtray canasters parked outside the shops that are loaded with cigarette buds. A bum or even youself could probably find a few unfinished cigarettes to pocket. Never mind the musicians, break dances, rebelious teens, hayaleem, russian immagrants, ethiopians, foriegn workers, and run of the mill Israelis who all ignore smoklng rules and light up anyway. Do you always lay on the BS?

I'm at least twice a month at dizzengoff center . There are some activities in my field of interest there and some shops too . I have a direct bus , the 66 Dan line , from my home town to Rechov Dizengoff . So are again wrong . Yes they were smoking outside their shops , last week i have'nt seen any , now it's finished with smoking [ i hope it will continue so ]. I know this center before you evenknew something , if you know it today , about it . From this fire you don't see anything anymore . When have you been there ? have you been ? As for your "religious" writings , this one can also receive the great prize of idiocy . For the Ramat Gan mall , it takes more time to reach , i was there yesterday . Returning with bus 92 it took exactly 1hour and 5 min. departure time at 12h30 , arrival at 13h35 near my home in Petach tikva . And in this mall there is no activity , nor shops in my field of interest . I'm not going to a mall for his beauty or for being renovated or newly build . There has to be something interesting me . You could add to your list , stupid hateful disgusting allegedly converts

i have seen only two smokers in the Petach tikva mall , not in Dizengoff , there you could'nt count them .

Yes after an increase of the price of cigarettes smokers diminish the quantity , not for long . but this is not very effective . most of them begin again . Having been a smoker i know about what i'm talking . I also lived in an environnrement with many smokers . Education and so is the most effective .

NIS 1000 is not US$ 255 ? or 5000 is this not 1300 US$ ? OK not exactly , that's not the important point . People abroad are not always aware of the value of the NIS , so these approximative numbers give them an idea