A quarter of the Israelis live with food insecurity, including 34 percent of the children in the country, a new report has revealed.
The Alternative Poverty Report issued by the nonprofit organisation Latet revealed that 28.7 per cent of Israelis – 2,756,000 citizens – including 39.6 per cent of children, live in poverty, warning that families in the lower middle class [sic] face the risk of deteriorating into poverty.
The report indicated that the economic situation of 65 per cent of families who receive support from charitable organisations had deteriorated during the past year, and half of the families receiving this support were forced to give up formula milk, or to consume less than the recommended amounts while 80 per cent of families did not have the money to buy enough food.
A whooping 70.8 per cent of citizens receiving support from charitable organisations said they had to give up buying necessary medications or medical treatment due to their economic situation.
In light of the economic hardship of the past year, 70.9 per cent of charities that distribute food reported a decline in donations, while the minimum cost of living for a family of two parents and two children rose by 6.9 per cent in that period, from 12,735 shekels ($3,535) to 13,617 ($3,780) shekels this year.
According to the Multidimensional Poverty Measure (MPM), which takes into account several factors in order to measure whether a family lives in poverty or serious poverty, the expenditure of families who receive support is 1.7 times higher than their monthly income, and 78.8 per cent of these families have debts, while this percentage drops to 26.9 per cent among the population as a whole.
In light of the economic hardship, 69.5 per cent of the supported families were forced to give up repairing serious damage to their homes. While 84.8 per cent suffer from “energy shortages” and face difficulties in heating their homes in winter and cooling them in summer.
The electricity was cut off from 22.1 per cent of the supported families in the last year, due to non-payment of the electricity bill.
As many as 22.8 per cent of children in these families dropped out of school.
Despite how bloodthirsty Herzlian culture is, these lower-class Jews are the likeliest to tolerate, if not outright support, the loss of apartheid, because they have almost nothing left to lose. Why would they trust and support a regime that does nothing for them and has failed them so spectacularly?
I think this will work to only deepen the divide between the "sane and secular" Zionists and the settler Zionists. Protests calling for netanyahu to step down and end the war (not because of humanitarian reasons, but because of the economic and national security ramifications) have only been increasing. The divide was always there, but now since the settlers have effectively hijacked the government that divide is going to continue to get worse.
The secularists/anti-netanyahu camp believe that the current government prioritizes the settlers over the rest of the citizens. As the economy continues to shrink, more israelis will blame each other for ruining the "country." Think maga/Republicans vs Blue MAGA/Democrats; each blaming the other for the country's failures.
Here's what actually will happen: israelis who can afford to leave, will leave. We've already seen that happen, and this is typically what happens to all countries that suffer from economic woes. This brain drain is going to further hurt the economy, which will continue to deepen the aforementioned divide. It's a vicious cycle,and no one is immune to it.