Poverty hits all-time high
National Insurance Institute of Israel report for 2004 shows one in every five Israelis below poverty line; social activist: Government transferring funds to the rich
Some 1.5 million Israelis lived below the poverty line in 2004, according to social and economic officials’ estimates ahead of the National Insurance Institute report scheduled for release on Monday.
Tens of thousands of citizens have joined the ranks of the poor last year, while the situation of those who were already living in poverty has worsened.
The report is due for publication one day prior to the cabinet meeting on the 2006 budget, which according to the Finance Ministry’s proposal includes an additional cut in welfare-related budgets.
The previous poverty report determined that 1.42 million people lived below the poverty line in 2003, among them some 652,000 children and teenagers. At the time the figures were attributed, in part, to the harsh economic cuts imposed by Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. As these cuts have continued throughout 2004, their results are sure to appearing Monday’s report.
National Insurance Institute Deputy-Director-General Leah Ahdut said Netanyahu’s economic policy has increased the social gap in Israel, adding that this gap is set to grow by an additional 2.4 percent within the next year.
'Netanyahu detaching the poor'
According to Ran Melamed of Yedid (friend in Hebrew) – The Association of Community Empowerment – the number of people seeking monetary aid from the social organization has jumped by 50 percent.
“Following the new economic regulations and pension cuts, a new class of poor people has been created – the working poor,” he said. “Thousands of workers who have previously belonged to the disintegrating middle class have fallen below the poverty line following the economic cuts.”
Attorney Yuval Albashan, a leading social activist, said, “the Israeli government has long since completed its disengagement – from more than a million-and-a-half poor citizens.”
“This is a deliberate policy by Netanyahu aimed at transferring funds from the poor to the rich in a bid to detach the poor from the rest of the nation,” he said.
