Once again, the annual Bituach Leumi report addressing poverty in Israel was released, today, Thursday, 20 Cheshvan. The report states there are less people living under the poverty line as compared to last year’s report, but 20.5% of the nation is still living under the poverty level, including one-third of the children.
1.8 million Israelis lived under the poverty line in Israel in 2010. As distressing as this number appears, it represents the best report since 2003. 120,000 people joined the ranks of the poor in 2010. Poverty still remains alarming high among children, 36.35%, a decline from 2010’s 36.45%. There are 1,733,400 individuals living under the poverty level, which includes 837,000 children, a total of 19.8% of the nation’s families.
Minister of Welfare Moshe Kahlon did not boast the decline overall, but lamented the poverty that exists in the country, calling the situation unacceptable and unforgiveable, stating the nation cannot accept such a reality and a change is demanded. He added that poverty is not genetic and it must not be accepted as a fait accompli.
The minister pointed out that as there is a growing gap between different economic sectors, the number of poor increases as well.
The minister believes that joining the national workforce is a step towards stepping out of the cycle of poverty, adding “I don’t believe it is logical for a healthy person who is capable of working not to do so”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
I wonder what the percentage is if you take away kollel families.
you neglect to mention that alot of it is self caused poverty….
when people wake up @ 30-40 that they need to earn a parnassa and they are already in debt from 10-20 years of not working and have no skill they are lucky if they find anything beyond working as a cashier….. if people live a balanced life, learning and working there would be a completely different story above…
#2 — That is just not the case. Even those with professional degrees in Israel earn very low salaries, outside of the tech and biomedical industries. And the cost of living is generally much higher then for example in the U.S. (housing, food, utilities, etc.)
#3 the cost of living here in israel is a fraction of the usa…
in the usa i paid about 1600 a month for health insurance -here for the best i paid about 100 bux…
in the usa i paid about 10k usd a kid for tuition here i paid about 6-700 usd.
in usa i paid about 3k a summer in camp here ia pay about $400
food is relatively the same-maybe a bit more….. utils are less… petrol is more, car reg is more here but thats about it….
most of the young working class generation are going into hi-tech israel is a tiny country and only so much of a given product can be sold–when working online u can sell millions to the world from a tiny office in hertzilya or tlv. israel has a ton of opportunity if you know how to look @ it.. i am in israel 5 years, i have been offered jobs @ over 100k usd (plus car etc)– this may not be the norm, but if you know what u r doing and motivated u can pull it off…. the issue with millions of people living below the poverty line is that they took to learning only and not being realistic and looking for parnosa– there is NOTHING wrong with doing both….