New bill to combat incitement by unlicensed tour guides
July 3, 2016MK Tali Ploskov of Kulanu has proposed a bill to make the penalty for working illegally as a tour guide more severe, citing serious damage to Israel’s global image as part of the necessity for new legislation.
“Tour guides in Israel have a tremendous impact on the fight over Israel’s image in the world,” the MK said, “Unfortunately, there is a widespread phenomenon where people pretending to be licensed tour guides present a twisted picture to tourists coming to Israel. The damage caused by this is twofold: work is taken away from actual licensed guides who’ve passed the Tourism Ministry course, and false facts about Israel are spread. The bill I have proposed would make penalties for impostors higher and enable effective enforcement.”
Ploskov is referring to the proliferation of tours organized by anti-Israel NGOs which give visitors the impression that Israel is a brutal occupying regime by repeating discredited myths about treatment of Palestinians by the IDF, and other distortions of the historical record.
The law currently in force for penalizing unlicensed tour guides is very old, as evidenced by the fact that the stipulated fine is in Liras, the currency that was replaced by the Shekel in 1980.
Chairman of the Israel Tour Guide association Benny Kfir praised the bill: “A law that imposes a 20,000 Lira fine for unlicensed tour guides should have been changed long ago. We thank MK Tali Ploskov for initiating this proposal, and we’re sure that all who care about Tourism in Israel will vote in favor of this bill in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.
“Nearly 50% of tours today are led by unlicensed guides,” Kfir continued, “this illegal activity causes an estimated 1.5 to 1.8 billion NIS of direct damage to the licensed guides, and the state loses over 2 million in tax revenue as well. Beyond the matter of the numbers, we are talking about honest people who fight for a living day after day in a fragile tourism industry constantly threatened by terror events.”
An estimated 5,000 legally licensed tour guides are currently active in Israel. By law, only guides who’ve earned a license by passing a course supervised by the Tourism Ministry may lead tours. The illegal guide phenomenon hurts Israel’s image in the world as the situation is often exploited by various elements to spread anti-Israel propaganda. The lack of professionalism and knowledge exhibited by unlicensed guides also hurts the Israel tourism product more generally, adversely affecting the economy.
The bill that will be discussed in today’s (Sunday) meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation proposes raising the fine to 5,000 NIS for a private individual, and 50,000 for a corporation. The prison term for violation of the law would also be doubled from six months to a year.
MK Ploskov hopes that these measures, if adopted, would deter continued violation of the law and the spreading of a twisted picture of reality in Israel.
Similar posts
-
Israel Is Held To A Higher Standard Than Any Country
April 25, 2024In the intricate tapestry of global affairs, one nation stands out for enduring scrutiny and condem...
-
Israel Has The Most Moral Military In The World
April 10, 2024In the heart of a region often riddled with conflict, Israel stands out not only for its technologi...
-
The Resilience of the Israeli People
April 2, 2024Visitors from around the world have seen Hamas's October 7th Massacre's destruction in southern Isr...
-
Israel: Small Size, Big Impact
March 21, 2024Nestled along the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, Israel is a land of immense historical sig...
-
Israelis Are Fighting For Their Lives
February 21, 2024By Jonathan S. Tobin The world looks a lot different from Kibbutz Kfar Aza than it does in the U...
-
Over 2 Million Arabs Live In Israel
January 23, 2024In the complex landscape of the Middle East, where diverse cultures and identities intersect, Israe...
-
'Fauda' Star Idan Amedi Injured Fighting in Gaza
January 8, 2024Despite the severity of his injuries, Amedi's father assured Israeli news channels that his life is...
-
Israel Is A Great Country To Live In
December 28, 2023Nestled at the crossroads of the Middle East, Israel stands as a vibrant and dynamic nation, offeri...