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December 13, 2002/Tevet 8 5763, Vol. 55, No. 16
Statistics show more Israelis slip below poverty line
JESSICA STEINBERG
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - On rainy winter days, Katya sits with her bulging shopping cart at a bus stop in Rechavia, one of Jerusalem's older, more genteel neighborhoods.
The 54-year-old was once a music teacher, but a prolonged divorce and depression cost Katya her job, and now she is homeless on the streets of Jerusalem.
According to recently released statistics on poverty, Katya is one of 1.2 million Israelis, or nearly 20 percent of the population, living below the poverty line. The figure has increased by almost 1 percent from the previous year.
The poverty level for an Israeli family of four is $934 per month.
The release of the poverty statistics coincided with the start of Israel's election campaign, and some parties are making demands for greater social equality a prominent issue in their platforms.
Yet while politicians cite the figures and results of the recent poverty report, few seem to have any concrete suggestions or solutions to address Israel's growing socioeconomic gap, beyond general statements that Israel should spend less on settlements or yeshivas and more on development towns.
In addition to the violence of the intifada, Israel has been suffering from a widening recession, brought on by the collapse of the high-tech bubble and the worldwide economic downturn. Unemployment has risen above 10 percent, and the country's economy is expected to grow by just 0.5 percent in 2003.
The numbers speak for themselves, experts say:
- The number of poor Israeli children increased by nearly 50 percent in 2001, to about 530,000.
- The United Nations Human Development Index for 2002 ranked Israel 22nd out of 174 countries, placing it among the world's most developed countries. Yet Israel's ranking in the next index is expected to drop, as the number of Israelis living below the poverty line is one of the highest in the Western world.
- A recent report from the Knesset committee on social gaps showed that the average monthly income for the top decile of Israeli households was around $9,000 - or 12 times the $716 average income in the bottom 10th of the population.
The findings expose a "society deep in a process of total collapse," said Cohen, who headed the committee's yearlong study.
Worsening economic conditions have led to severe budget cuts, primarily in social welfare.
While politicians and ministers have lobbied successfully for larger outlays for security and defense, little progress has been made on funding and policies to battle poverty.
Still, at this week's Israel Business Conference, keynote speaker Eli Hurvitz, chairman of drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals and an active Labor Party member, said he was convinced that the economy is capable of earning enough to provide workers and the unemployed with a decent living.
Citing what he called Israel's "defective" political culture, Hurvitz dismissed the government's tendency to blame its economic failures on the intifada.
"There is more poverty and inequality, and less growth," he said.
In fact, the figures show that the latest poverty report is not an aberration and can't be blamed on the intifada, which began a little over two years ago, said Danny Guttwein, a lecturer at Haifa University and expert on social issues.
"There wasn't a 'poverty oversight,' " Guttwein said. Rather, the poverty report tells of a continuing trend based on socioeconomic policies that have guided the country for the last 20 years.
"It shows that poverty has become a life experience for a wide sector of society," Guttwein said. "That is the most prominent statistic in the report: that poverty has become the basic experience for many Israelis."
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