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Smoke wherever you want
Yoram Kaniuk thinks new Israeli anti-smoking laws are foolish and should be ignored
Yoram Kaniuk
As one who no longer smokes, for the wrong reasons, I saw a woman in her bathroom who closed the window, held soap in her right hand, and while her body was trembling, held a burning cigarette in her left hand. An inspector hopped through the window and immediately fined her for smoking in a public place.
A bit earlier, she was thrown out of the coffee shop after she sat on the sidewalk in the wind and rain and smoked, when inspectors arrived and fined her. She attempted to convince the inspector, in vain, that her bathroom is not public property and there is nobody there who would die from passive smoking, yet the inspector told her the land on which her house was built is state-owned, and the State passed a law against smoking in public places.
On the street, people were standing and sitting outside, near small coffee shops. The rain poured on their faces. The faces of the coffee shop owners looked grey, while brave inspectors who were hiding behind the trees charged at the smokers at once and fined them, because smoking is no longer permitted at sidewalk cafes.
Some guy in the Knesset initiated this crusade and ordered to eliminate what is mistakenly referred to as “passive smoking,” and that’s that. I walked on another street, and the man walking ahead of me broke wind. I wrote a letter to the smart guy at the Knesset and asked that flatulence be outlawed because it endangers the passersby.
Trucks were driving through and emitting great smoke – I coughed, I was suffocating, but they are allowed to do it. People spoke on their cellular phones, which emit cancer-causing radiation, yet the inspectors looked the other way.
The owners of cellular companies are stronger than the 120 fools at the Knesset who supported this folly. Listen, people of Israel, smoke wherever you want. There are terrible pressures in this country and the most terrible viruses live at hospitals, but there is still no ban on going there.
We are facing a difficult situation here: Iran, terrorists, and all sorts of other bad things, so keep on smoking. Especially outside. We have sweet sun in winter and smoking outside won’t harm even the smart guys at the Knesset. Don’t pay the fines.
Coffee shop owners, please, be brave as well and do not pay the fines, at least the ones handed out because people were smoking on the sidewalk. The sidewalk does not belong to their mother. It belongs to all of us. Declare a revolt against this robbery and idiocy. You are allowed to do so. This is not a political matter: It’s neither in favor nor against peace. If you won’t pay, the suffering will end, because smoking outside falls under the category of laws that the public cannot bear with.
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