According to officials of the Latet organization, about 14% of the recipients of aid were middle class which have since slid to join the ranks of the nation’s poor. According to Latest CEO attorney Eren Weintraub, 40,000 children are expected to join the ranks of the nation’s poor this year. Latet is an umbrella organization that includes 150 nonprofits in 95 locations around the country assisting 60,000 families.
According to Weintraub, 439,500 families and 1.7 million people including 817,000 children are listed under the poverty line. Weintraub laments about one quarter of Israel’s population is under the poverty level today. He stresses one in four people are poor and one in five families is under the poverty level. Israel ranks 32 among 34 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) nations. The OECD poverty average is 11%, far lower than Israel’s average.
Weintraub explains rent and mortgage payments are choking families and that 18.8% of the nation faces nutritional uncertainty of which 8.6% face severe daily concerns pertaining to finding a meal. Latet warns of increased sickness resulting from malnutrition and the continued spread of poverty will lead to a new culture of poverty as food prices continue to climb as the government cut monthly subsidies to families. He also speaks of the government foot dragging pertaining to financial assistance for residents of southern communities, many without resources as a result of Operation Protective Edge.
Weintraub and his colleagues fear the new 2015 budget that is being formulated today will once again ignore the nation’s growing poverty.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
If you asked the people in Israel in 1913 (the last year of Muslim rule), or in 1947 (the last year of British rule), or even 1976 (the last year of socialist rule), what defines poverty and applied their definition to today. The people from 1913 would say that poverty has vanished and everyone in Israel is living like princes. THe ones from 1947 would say that even the poorest Israelis live better than middle class ones in their days. Even the ones from 1976 would say that poverty has been largely erased.