Knesset passes law banning underweight models

JTA

JERUSALEM — Israel’s Knesset approved a new law that would ban the use of underweight models in advertising.

The law passed Monday night also requires that any ad digitally altered to make a model look thinner must say so in the advertisement.

Kadima Party lawmaker Rachel Adatto, a doctor who specializes in health issues among young women, authored the bill. The idea is to prevent young people from aspiring unhealthily toward impossible body-image goals.

According to the law, models with a Body Mass Index below 18.5 would be prohibited from appearing in advertisements. 

“This law will send a message to teenagers that being thin is acceptable, but slimness has its limits, and there is such a thing as too thin,” Ynet quoted Adatto as saying after the law was passed.

The Likud’s Danny Danon, who proposed the bill with Adatto, called the measure a “knockout in the war against anorexia.”

Danon said he was contacted about the law by members of the U.S. Congress who are considering promoting a similar law, according to Ynet.