Fame is reporting on faulty traffic lights and other local news and is supposedly the entertainment reporter for BBC Cumbria in Barrow in Furness - hardly likely to influence anyone travelling anywhere.Looking for his five minutes of glory.
Hands up all those who haven't been scammed by a taxi driver once in their lives?Obviously riveting news worthy of the BBC!

Apparently only in Israel and humanity must be properly warned!
I am sure, that journalist was a real lover of all things Israeli, now his dreams have shattered!
I hope he never returns, even if our government apologizes and buys him a nice Mini Morris....

country... a bad name"!
BTW, that was a great song:-)

meter being used all the time? In which world do they live? As a Tourist, you are ripped ALWAYS. I really trie to avoid using Taxis when in Israel, but sometimes it is inevitable. The meter was used NOT ONCE. "soory, it´s late", "meter not working", "last fare", "Holiday", "Rushhour".... Chose your favorite excuse. For tourists, Israel is a rip-off-country. Unfortunately, I do love it. My bad.

Go on vacation, steal the towels from the hotel. Go to a restaurant, walk out without paying tab or leave no tip. Go to a quiet place like a theater, talk loud and obnoxious and act like no one else is there.

We don't have to be Israeli to know that the BBC hates Jews and Israel. Some dumb taxi driver has thrown a bone to the anti-Semites to chew on. Let them (animals) have their feast.

Anyone that doesn't speak Hebrew and lives on Israel knows the tricks.
Even with the meter on I would say 30-40% of the rides (without Gett) will get you a driver that is trying to screw you over by taking an unnecessary long route (or at least trying to) or adding extra charges here and the to the final price.
With Gett things got a little better. Maybe only 20% of the rights come with surprises, but it is easy to complain and get a refund since there is a GPS recoding of the ride.

on taxi rides. I traveled during the 90's and can tell anyone interested
that cab drivers take financial advantage any time they think they can
get away with it - especially with naive tourists. But, realistically, people,
you are on vacation - are you really counting the money each and every
time? What kind of vacation is that ?

Cannot believe I am actually agreeing with the BBC about.

YOU GET ROBBED ALSO IN KIOSKS, GROCERY STORES, ICE CREAM PARLORS, VEGETABLE MARKETS, BARBER SHOPS, HOTEL CHECK IN, ONCE THEY CHARGE ME TO FIX A TIRE 200 NIS.TO REMOVE A SMALL NILE. AND THEY DID A BAD JOB. IN FLORIDA I PAY $ 7 TO $ 10.FOR A PERFECT REPAIR. I ALMOST FORGOT RIP OFF HEAVEN ARE ALL JEWELRY STORES THROUGHOUT ISRAEL. BUT I STILL GO BACK.

I'm sure many taxi drivers rip off tourists especially when not putting on the Moneh of the cab. That being said I now live in London and a short black cab ride here that is normally £7-10 can easily become well over £20 (over 100 NIS) when in traffic.
I do get the feeling that the BBC Journalist in question may have resented paying 80 NIS to an Israeli Cab driver, when he wouldn't have a problem paying more for a cab ride in London. Likewise the journalists outraged by being asked security questions by Israwelis at Ben Gurion airport don't seem to have a problem with being questioned at Heathrow or in the US etc. It seems rather like they are singling out dealings with Jewish people as being particularly unpleasant for them. There is a word for that!

This has happened to me in Europe. The worst case was in Greece. The driver dropped us off 6 blocks from our destination, charged us 17 euro (it was supposed to be 5!) and gave us change for 20 euro when we had given him 50. I would never consider telling people not to visit Greece or other countries because of rotten taxi drivers.
The BBC reporter probably has another agenda.

It's so very simple - just insist on the cabbie turning on the meter. If the cabbie won't put it on, get the cab number and report it. That ensures a fair ride. Also, every cab I ever took in Israel used Waze or some form of a traffic navigation app. You can be sure they aren't giving you the run around. BTW - I do this in EVERY country and US State I visit. It's really unfair to make this such a big deal when the passenger needs to know the rules.

What the guy did was illegal and he knew it but in Israel taxis are always a rip iff even if your paying the correct price.
If you have a lot of luggage sometimes drivers will charge you extra for the bags because the logic is your paying for the bags, if you want a cab after 8pm sometimes you will be charged extra so its not like Israeli taxis have ever been good value for money.

Sadly drivers know there are time when they can take advantage and they include tourists or anybody they think is a tourist, big events like Eurovision etc and most people think nothing of it and pay the price because taxi drivers are honest right?

I remember I came to Israel when I was about 18, I was staying with relatives in Tel Aviv and I injured my ankle, did nothing about it for days then one Saturday night just gets unbearable so decide to go to hospital get it looked at and I knew the hospital was only about 10 minutes walk but I was in pain so decided to get a cab.
Flagged somebody down he wanted 50 shekel but I got him down to 30 and agreed 30 shekel which was still to much but I just wanted to get to hospital, we got there went to pay and he demanded 50 I refused and before I could knew what he was doing he drove me back to where he picked me up and told me to get out.. he of course doesn't represent your average taxi driver but shows you can set rules but they will not always be followed

Boycott Israeli taxi drivers ... they are a buck of crooks

On every trip to Israel you get one rip off taxi driver who tries to overcharges or tax you round the houses

If they try the latter turn on Waze on your phone with the volume on high - the drivers get the message very quickly - sometimes you get a nasty comments but it works