Member of Knesset Rabbi Yehuda Glick (Likud) entered his fourteenth day of hunger strike on Monday.
MK Glick began his hunger strike to demand that the tobacco tax be raised to prevent another generation of Israeli youth from joining what he calls the “circle of death.”
In a conversation with journalists, Glick stated that “the rolling tobacco is cheaper and more tasty than buying a snack. It is easier to roll tobacco cigarettes with the guys. Therefore, together with the health ministry, the state comptroller, three Knesset committees, and many other bodies, including Israeli and international health organizations, I am trying to pressure a man named Moshe Kaḥlon.”
Minister of Finance Moshe Kaḥlon (Kulanu) has so far refused to impose the same taxes on rolling tobacco that already exist on regular cigarettes, which is more than three times higher than the tax on loose tobacco.
The main purpose of the high tax on tobacco is to keep people away from smoking. While cigarette smoking has declined over the past few years, the amount of loose tobacco sold has increased dramatically.
Glick demanded that Kaḥlon raise the tax on rolling tobacco at least to the level of taxes on cigarettes “so that it will be difficult for these children to purchase it, and perhaps this will prevent many hundreds of children from joining the same vortex from which it is difficult to escape. It starts with one cigarette, then two, and then there is already inside the cigarette an addictive substance and they join that terrible cycle of death that the world of cigarettes and tobacco and smoking causes.”
“As a member of the Committee on Drugs and Alcohol, we were exposed and we did not know how dangerous this was. Every hour an individual dies from smoking. I saw fit to fight as a public emissary so that no more blood would spill and I would not have to say, ‘My hands did not shed this blood,’ and to do everything possible to prevent the continuation of this circle of death.”
Glick said that the health ministry’s latest report shows that the age of exposure to smoking is gradually declining. While children were previously exposed at the ages of 15 and 16, it has now lowered to 13 and 14.
“They buy tobacco packages together, roll them together, and sometimes they add more materials. I heard this from school principals and youth villages in the religious community as well. I was approached by high school principals and elementary school principals.”
According to Glick, cigarettes are more dangerous than any other kind of drug. “Cigarettes are the deadliest drug and it’s as bad as any other drug. Cigarettes are more dangerous. They are more addictive and kill more than drugs and alcohol. I am also trying to promote a law in the ministerial committee on legislation that will increase the age to buy tobacco and cigarettes because most smokers start between the ages of 16-24. The higher I raise the age, the higher the chance that fewer people will start.”
