Government green-lights bill banning advertising cigarettes, tobacco

Legislation to move to Knesset, would still allow ads in print media, but only with an equal-sized health warning

By Stuart Winer

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24 December 2017, 6:05 pm

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Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

Illustrative. Cigarettes in an ashtray. (Yossi Zamir/ Flash90)

Government ministers gave the go-ahead Sunday for a a bill that would ban advertising for cigarettes and tobacco, except in print media.

The bill was sponsored by Likud MK Yehudah Glick and MK Eitan Cabel from the opposition Zionist Union. It could be brought to the Knesset for a first reading by next week.

The stamp of approval from the Ministerial Committee for Legislation means the bill will enjoy coalition support and have a better chance of passing the Knesset.

“Smoking is the number one cause of death in Israel that kills thousands of people every year,” Glick said in a statement. “The tobacco companies will lose money but the public will profit.”

Advertisements in print media will only be permitted alongside an equal-sized health warning. A separate bill banning the sale of tobacco products to those under the age of 21, also sponsored by Glick, is to be debated by the ministerial committee early next year.

Likud MK Yehuda Glick at the Knesset, November 21, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“This law is about life or death, no less. We are aiming at the younger generation who aren’t aware of the dangers,” Cabel said.

Government support for the tobacco advertising bill was hammered out in an agreement with Glick in return for gaining his vote for a controversial bill limiting the operation of convenience stores on Saturdays, the Jewish day of rest.

That bill cleared its first reading in the Knesset on December 12 with a vote of 59 for and 54 against, hours after ultra-Orthodox Interior Minister Aryeh Deri threatened to quit the government unless the legislation went ahead. With such a narrow margin, the coalition needed every vote and required hours of late-night negotiations to secure a parliamentary majority, after the coalition Yisrael Beytenu party — as well as Glick, fellow Likud MK Sharren Haskel, and Kulanu MK Rachel Azaria — announced their opposition.

The Saturday mini-market bill, sponsored by Deri of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, would grant the Interior Ministry the power to oversee and reject local ordinances relating to whether business may remain open on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest that runs from Friday evening through till Saturday night.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.