James Coleman, the mean minded deputy leader of Glasgow City Council, is at the forefront of the End Prostitution Now initiative, which - according to the city council - has attracted support from MSPs, fellow councillors, unions and religious nutters.

West Renfrewshire MSP Trish Godman is one of the supporters. She has now poposed legislative amendments in the Scottish Parliament as follows:

Engaging in, advertising and facilitating paid-for sexual activities

11A Engaging in a paid-for sexual activity

(1) A person (A) commits an offence, to be known as the offence of engaging in a paid-for sexual activity, if A knowingly engages in a paid-for sexual activity with another person (B).

(2) A sexual activity is paid for where B engages in that activity in exchange for payment.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), it is immaterial whether the payment is made—

(a) by A or by another person, or
(b) to B or to another person on B's behalf.

11B Advertising paid-for sexual activities

A person commits an offence, to be known as the offence of advertising paid for sexual activities, if that person knowingly advertises, by any means, the availability of sexual activities that can be engaged in for payment.

11C Facilitating engagement in a paid-for sexual activity

(1) A person (A) commits an offence, to be known as the offence of facilitating engagement in a paid-for sexual activity, if A knowingly facilitates the engagement of another person (B) in a paid-for sexual activity with another person (C).

(2) A sexual activity is paid for where C engages in that activity in exchange for payment.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), it is immaterial whether the payment is made—

(a) by A, by B or by another person, or
(b) to C or to another person on C's behalf.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (1), facilitating the engagement by B in a paid for sexual activity includes (but is not limited to)—

(a) arranging B's engagement in the activity,
(b) making payment to C or to another person on C's behalf,
(c) making available premises in which the activity takes place, or
(d) transporting B, or arranging transport for B, to where the activity takes place

Although the Israeli sex trade is said to generate billions of dollars of profit a year, with as many as a million visits to prostitutes each month, the Knesset is adopting a mean minded approach to would-be clients of Israel's flourishing prostitution market.

MK Orit Zuarets (Kadima), chairwoman of the Committee against the Trafficking of Women, filed a bill Sunday that would make the act of hiring a prostitute illegal in Israel.

The significance of placing criminal responsibility on sex trade customers is that it regards prostitution as a forbidden phenomenon that is illegitimate and is rejected by society, explained Zuarets.

Zuarets has initiated a bill that would prohibit consuming sexual services and would allow courts to try sex trade consumers. The bill has won wide support, and is being co-sponsored by 25 MKs from across the political spectrum.

As an amendment to the penal code, Zuarets's legislation would place a possible sentence of up to six months in prison for a sex customer. Any customer found guilty for the first time would be offered the alternative of a community rehabilitation plan, whereas a repeat customer found guilty more than once will not have the option of participating in the community plan.

Prostitution in Israel is currently legal, whereas the accompanying crimes, including pimping, running brothels, publishing sex advertisements and trading in women, are all criminal offenses. But legislators claimed that the law was never sufficiently efficient in reducing these phenomena in any significant manner.

Legislators and anti-trafficking organizations were not alone in their support for Zuarets's bill. One of the preeminent rabbis of the national religious movement, Rabbi Yuval Sherlow, the head of the Petah Tikvah Hesder Yeshiva wrote an opinion supporting according to Jewish law the imprisonment of a man who has hired the services of a prostitute. MK Zevulun Orlev (Jewish Home) had requested Sherlow's opinion on the subject, and Sherlow wrote in support of the measure, but opposed placing sole responsibility on the customer.

Margo MacDonald is set to mount a new bid to change the law on prostitution if campaigners attempt to ban the sex trade.

The Independent Lothians MSP said a drive spearheaded by Glasgow to make it illegal to buy or sell sex or allow premises to be used for such purposes was a waste of time and money.

Labour MSP Trish Godman plans to table an amendment outlawing the buying and selling of sex to the Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill currently being considered by MSPs.

Ms MacDonald said if the proposal was made, she would put forward an amendment which would seek to make any offence associated with prostitution a public nuisance offence.