NIS 150,000 fine to TA club that refused to ban smoking

Court fines Bella Shlomkin’s pub and dance club for failing to enforce no-smoking laws and protect the rights of nonsmokers.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
man smoking 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
man smoking 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
An unprecedented NIS 150,000 fine was handed down in a class-action suit on Monday by Central District Court Judge Michal Nadav against Tel Aviv’s Bella Shlomkin’s pub and dance club for failing to enforce no-smoking laws and protect the rights of nonsmokers.
The suit, filed by lawyer and Israel Council for the Prevention of Smoking chairman Amos Hausner, protested on behalf of Russian immigrants who frequented the place for special events on Friday nights.
Nadav awarded NIS 90,000 to the Israel Cancer Association, NIS 15,000 to the plaintiffs and NIS 45,000 in lawyer’s fees. In 2009, the same judge agreed for the first time to certify the class-action suit against the establishment for failing to enforce no-smoking laws. Hausner represented Mark Litvin, his wife, Yelena, and other Israelis from the former Soviet Union who attended Russian-language events in 2008 at Bell Shlomkin’s, which is located on Rehov Noah Mozes. One witness testified that he was ejected from the club by manager Ron Fire after asking that the incessant smoking of customers be stopped.
Hausner told The Jerusalem Post that he was pleased by the ruling and the record fine, as he thought they would deter other clubs and bars from disregarding no-smoking violations by both customers and employees.