Today, representatives of the Hadassah medical organization are demonstrating outside Jerusalem city hall, protesting the lack of enforcement of this law. To put it mildly, the law has been totally ignored in the 10 months since it went into effect.
In those ten months, it is nearly impossible to eat at a restaurant in Jerusalem or many other cities without being almost overcome by the noxious fumes of cigarettes and virtually every table. Central bus stations throughout the country are full of smokers waiting for a bus, eating at the food courts, or simply walking among the shops. Other malls are similarly poisoned by cigarette fumes.
Movie theaters were, until a few months ago, so full of smoke during the intermissions that shouting "fire" was no longer a philosophical question. Some still are. But many have improved and now ban smoking in the lobbies.
Hadassah is to be commended for their stand. Their hospitals were the first ones in the country to adopt a totally smoke free environment, almost a year before the law went into effect. And while it has taken almost a year since the law went into effect, they are finally protesting the lack of enforcement.
There are two main problems being highlighted by the protest. First is the lack of respect smokers in general have for non-smokers. Smoking is not the only way tobacco can harm a person. Second-hand smoke -- the smoke inhaled by non-smokers -- has been shown to be just as harmful as direct smoking. If a person chooses to commit suicide by smoking, that is his prerogative. But murdering others by his careless actions is not his right, and is criminal in Israel.
The second problem is that the Israeli legal system does not enforce the laws with which it is empowered. Smoking is only one major example. But there are many other areas, including building codes, child support, conservation, pollution, traffic, and others.
What this means is that either the Knesset simply passes laws without any intention of really solving the problems in society, or that the system is shot through with corruption, patronage and inefficiency that it becomes useless. Either way, there is a serious problem in the legislative and law enforcement process that needs to be solved if Israel is to shed the backward elements of its national image.
Smoking is one of the more serious issues representative of the larger problem. The lack of enforcement of the law has a negative effect on public health, places an increased strain on the national health budget, and precludes resources from being allocated to other necessary areas within healthcare and in other fields.
It is all fine and good for the government to pass a law prohibiting smoking in public places. But if the law is not enforced, those lawmakers are made to look foolish and useless as the problems they are meant to be addressing continue to go unsolved.
By consistently refusing to enforce the laws they pass, the government and law enforcement agencies become complicit in the offense. Such a culture of government is not healthy for society, and must be replaced. Until then, we must all hold our breath and wait.
Copyright 2002. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
