NII: 18% of Israeli families living below poverty line

The proportion of Israeli families living below the poverty line rose to 18.1 percent in 2002, including some 618,000 children, according to a report published Thursday by the National Insurance Institute.

Breakdown of poverty among families

In real terms, around 1,321,000 people - some 396,000 households - survived on an amount lower than half the median national salary. According to the most recent figures, the poverty line in Israel stands at NIS 4,463 (around $1,000) for a household of two adults and two children, and NIS 1,743 (around $370) for a single person.

Labor and Social Affairs Minister Zevulun Orlev, who presented the report Thursday, said that the percentage of poor families had remained stable, but criticized the widening social divide in Israel as untenable.

The report also revealed a rise in the percentage of Israeli children living below the poverty line. In last year's report, the figure stood at 26.9 percent of Israeli children (some 531,000 in real terms), but a year later had grown to 28.1 percent.

In 2001 roughly 1.16 million Israelis, or 17.7 percent of households in the country, were living in poverty.

The newly-released data reflects the growth in unemployment in 2002 as well as the sharp cuts in NII stipends, the majority of which were reduced by 4 percent. Child benefits were cut by 15 percent, tougher criteria were set for qualification for unemployment benefits, and supplementary income allowances were also cut.

In response to the report, both the Shas and Meretz parties called for a no-confidence vote against the government.

Shas chairman Eli Yishai attacked the government for a policy that he said reveled in harming children. He also blamed Orlev for hitting the weakest sectors of Israeli society.

Histadrut chairman Amir Peretz said the government's policies will increase the number of Israelis living below the poverty line.

"The poverty report is already out of date in that it does not include the thousands of newly poor whom the government continues every month to push below the poverty line. The only thing that is flourishing here is the number of poor and soup kitchens," Peretz said.

"If the treasury's plan is implemented, thousands more public and private sector employees will be fired," Peretz said. "This government - rather than extending a hand to help the nation's poor - deals exclusively with incitement in an attempt to blame them for the situation. This is a [government] effort to escape responsibility."

MK Ran Cohen (Meretz), who chairs the Knesset committee charged with reducing social gaps, said that poverty has evolved into the greatest strategic danger to the existence of the State of Israel.

Cohen said that if the government does not make sharp changes in its economic and social policies, "the social catastrophe that is striking Israeli society will continue."

MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz) said that the current government - unlike all its predecessors - believes in poverty.

"The government of [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon, [Justice Minister Yosef] Lapid and [Finance Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has abandoned the nation to the rich. As long at these three have ministerial business, we will have serious unemployment here. Only when they themselves are unemployed will the overall unemployment rate begin to ebb," Sarid said.

The Knesset's Labor and Welfare Committee will hold an emergency meeting next week to discuss both the poverty report and the 2004 state budget.

Committee chair MK Shaul Yahalom (National Religious Party) said that year after year the State of Israel is moving further away from being a welfare state. He added that the Labor and Welfare Committee will use all its parliamentary powers to halt this trend.

President Moshe Katsav called for the government to set up a public inquiry to work toward stemming the growth of poverty in Israel.

	Social Affairs Minister Zevulun Orlev: The widening social divide in Israel is untenable. (Archives)