In 2005, the Palestinian Authority passed an anti-smoking law, law number 25. It limits and bans smoking in various public areas and in schools. It also prohibits tobacco advertisements, forces cigarettes to have warnings, and institutes fines and other punishments for non-adherence.
Fourteen years later, this law has never been put into practice.
Six years after the law was passed, a committee was established in September 2011 with the aim of following up the implementation of Law No. (25). The PA never followed up to activate the executive regulations and judicial controls and community awareness needed to support the law.
As far as I can tell, nothing has changed. Kids are smoking in schools, as are teachers (but generally not in front of students.)
Ironically, Hamas has implemented anti-smoking measures that are effective. While 26.9% of the West Bank Arab adults are smokers; only 14.6% in the Gaza Strip are.
To give an idea of how dysfunctional this PA government is, yesterday – after 14 years, the Ministry of Health finally decided to ban smoking in its own buildings.
The Health Ministry itself didn’t bother to ban smoking in its own facilities until now!
This is only a single example among many about how incompetent the Palestinian Arab leaders are at actually running a government. These types of stories are unreported for whatever politically correct reason, but the fact remains. The EU comes in and spends hundreds of millions to teach them how to run a country and they do the minimum necessary to get that cash, but show little interest in pro-actively governing on their own. Sure, there are lots of committees and meetings but nothing to show for it.
One reason is that the government is a dictatorship, with Mahmoud Abbas controlling Fatah, the PA, the PLO, the cabinet and the judicial system. This is why the priorities are paying terrorists and opposing Israel in international venues as opposed to actually trying to build a state.
When will Western media and diplomats start to wake up?
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