Almost a Quarter of Israeli Population Living in Poverty in 2012, Report Finds
More than 1.7 million people in Israel were living in poverty in 2012 — some 23.5 percent of the population — marking a slight dip over the previous year.
The annual poverty report, released this week by Israel’s National Insurance Institute and the Central Bureau of Statistics, noted that 817,000 children were among those living in property that year. In 2011, more than 1.8 million people and nearly 861,000 children lived in poverty.
Some 439,500 families, or 19.4 percent of Israeli families, lived below the poverty line in 2012, and 5 percent of those families had two workers or more. Arab families made up nearly 37 percent of Israel’s poor households. The highest poverty rates were in Jerusalem.
Some 180,000 elderly citizens lived in poverty in 2012, representing 23 percent of Israel’s elderly.
“There are indications that in 2012 there was a certain improvement in the poverty situation and inequality generally, particularly among the young and in smaller families,” according to the report.
Gidi Kroch, CEO of Leket Israel, a food rescue organization that helps feed poor Israeli families, said the statistics have not changed in years, “and it’s not a case of no news is good news.”
“It’s indicative of the lack of planning and lack of changes being implemented to alter the poverty crisis in Israel,” Kroch said. “The wording of the report gives you the sense that they are referring to products and not individuals; the people living in poverty. It’s as if the people have gotten lost in the statistics.”
Israeli President Shimon Peres, who was presented with the report Tuesday, tweeted his disappointment: “The fact that there are 800,000 hungry children in Israel is disturbing. If there are poor among us, it reflects on us as a society #Poverty.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
