- The Israeli government adopted an austerity budget in
September, cutting social welfare to pay for defence and settlements. Israelis
were already suffering from the worst recession since 1953. Now one family
in five does not have enough to eat.
-
- Since the beginning of the summer, ministers, civil servants,
shoppers and passers-by on the avenue in front of the finance ministry
in Jerusalem have had to file past a row of tents where men, women and
children are living. These people - single mothers, the homeless and the
unemployed - are the main victims of the current anti-social policies of
Ariel Sharon's government.
-
- Vicki Knafo, the woman who started the protest movement,
is a 43-year-old divorcee raising her three children on 1,200 shekels ($270)
a month that she earns as a part-time cook in a creche. Until July she
received supplementary benefit of around 2,700 shekels ($605) to bring
her income up to the official minimum. But after the government's recent
austerity measures she gets 1,200 shekels less. Early in July she set out
from her home in the Negev desert town of Mizpeh Ramon to walk the 200km
to Jerusalem. It took her a week. Others have followed her, sometimes taking
their children with them. Among them is Ben Abraham, aged 59, who has a
dog but no home. His T-shirt bears the message: "My dog has a kennel
- what do I have?"
-
- The police intervene violently whenever these protesters
attempt to speak to ministers.
-
- A group of Negev Bedouins who have set up a tent nearby
are protesting against the systematic destruction of their villages, which
is intended to drive them from their ancestral lands into city slums that
some people call "reservations".
-
- There is another campsite of the unemployed and homeless
in Tel Aviv. It was set up in August 2002 in one of the richest districts
on Kikar Medina (State Square), which the protesters call Kikar HaLehem
(Bread Square). Dozens live there, with their children, in old buses or
tents. So far, all attempts by the local authority and property owners
to have them removed have failed.
-
- "The choice of place is no accident," says
Israel Twito, 38, a divorcee who is bringing up three daughters alone.
"The contrast between our miserable campsite and the neighbourhood's
luxury shops and apartment blocks symbolises the ever-widening abyss between
rich and poor."
-
- These protesters are the tip of the iceberg, for Israel
is in acute economic crisis. From 1992 to 1995 growth was above 7% a year,
thanks to the Oslo Accords and the arrival of Jews who had emigrated from
the former Soviet Union. It has fallen continuously ever since, and the
second intifada has plunged the country into deep recession (1). In the
first half of 2003 per capita GNP fell by 0.7%, after falling by 6.7% in
the second half of 2001, 2.1 % in the first half of 2002, and 1.3% in the
second half of 2002 (2).
-
- The budget deficit for 2003 was nearly 6% of GNP, and
industrial production fell by 1.1% in the first half of the year. Even
the output of the hi-tech industries fell by 8% in May and June. Private
per capita consumption fell by 2.1% over the same period: it had fallen
by 2.1% in the first half, and 2.8% in the second half, of 2002.
-
- During the preparatory debates on the 2004 budget at
the end of August, Binyamin Netanyahu's finance ministry forecast a growth
rate of 2.5%, a 2.9% drop in public consumption, a record rise of 11.2%
in unemployment, a drop of 4% in public sector and 2.3% in private sector
wages, and inflation of 1.1-1.2%.
-
- Avraham Shochat, a Labour member of the Knesset and former
finance minister, says talk of a turnaround in the economy is "nonsense".
It "will be achieved only if there is a political turnaround in the
Middle East. Without that, there will be no new investments by foreigners
or Israelis." He believes the economy will not see growth of 2.5%
in 2004 unless the level of friction with the Palestinians is lowered (3).
-
- In July the number of registered unemployed went above
220,000, which is 14,000 more than in June. As a result, 34 towns (29 Arab
and 5 Jewish) had a rate above the symbolic threshold of 10%. Things are
unlikely to get better, since thousands of teachers have been sacked on
the eve of the new school year, and thousands more government employees
will lose their jobs or be forced into early retirement soon. The finance
minister predicts Israel will have 300,000 registered unemployed next year.
Thousands more will no longer bother to register, since the government
has introduced measures to cut the numbers eligible for benefit. Under-25s
will have to check in at the labour exchange every day, to force them to
take the place of Israel's 250,000 immigrant workers, more than 50,000
of whom have been expelled by the police. These were ruthlessly exploited,
often working up to 14 hours a day and seven days a week for a monthly
wage of $500 to $600 - a form of modern slavery that Israelis are not willing
to accept.
-
- According to the government, the latest austerity plan
is the only way to get the Israeli economy on a sound footing. It means
swingeing cuts in social welfare budgets, nationally and locally. On top
of previous anti-social legislation, these new attacks on the welfare state
have hit the worst-off hardest. But the middle classes have not been spared
either. The amount of unemployment benefit has been reduced, and stricter
qualifying conditions imposed. The same applies to maternity and family
allowances, and to supplementary benefit for war invalids and people earning
less than the official minimum. A further reduction in family allowances
has put another 11,000 families below the poverty line, bringing the total
to 1.17 million - that is one Israeli in five.
-
- Finance ministry spokesmen claim the cuts in family allowances
will force the recipients to stop sponging off the state and get a job.
They ignore the growing unemployment. As more and more factories close,
the government is not only failing to create jobs - it is suppressing them.
State retirement pensions have been frozen at January 2001 levels, and
invalidity benefits frozen until 2006. Health and education budgets have
been cut and charges to users increased. The state has also cut back on
housing loans to force young couples, new olim (Jewish immigrants) and
the homeless to seek mortgages from private banks.
-
- The pension reform will mean an increase in employees'
contributions and smaller retirement pensions from October. Starting in
January 2004, the retirement age for men will be raised from 65 to 67,
and for women from 60 to 67.
-
- Dr Yitzhak Kadman, director of the National Council for
the Child, compares the austerity plan with the 10 plagues inflicted on
Egypt in the Old Testament: "This plan is afflicting children and
families with children with at least 20 painful plagues" (4).
-
- On 28 August the popular Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot
ran the front-page headline "A million Israelis are hungry".
Earlier this year researchers at the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's
Brookdale Institute, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, reported
that 400,000 Israeli families - 22% of the total - were suffering from
"nutritional insecurity", since they could not provide their
children regularly with the food they need for proper growth.
-
- Some ate smaller portions, others skipped meals. In the
worst cases, they ate nothing all day. Meals were monotonous and poor in
meat, dairy products, fruit and vegetables. Four out of five of these families
said things have worsened in the past two years and their economic situation
is more precarious: 5% admitted seeking food aid from soup kitchens or
charities. According to another poll published by the humanitarian charity
Latet (Giving), the number of Israelis applying for food aid jumped by
46% in a year. The main applicants are single-parent and large families.
-
- Public opinion was shocked by the simultaneous announcement
of the huge profits made by Israel's banks. The largest, Bank Hapoalim,
announced net profits of 335m shekels ($75m) for the second quarter of
2003, an increase of 59%. Israel Discount Bank's profit rose to 116m shekels
($26m) for the same period, 36.5% more than in 2002. The combined profits
of the five largest banks (Hapoalim, Leumi, Discount, Hamizrahi and BenLeumi)
for the first half of 2003 are 1,400m shekels ($314m), 130% higher than
the first half of 2002.
-
- "The economic and social crisis is the outcome of
two major factors," says former Communist Knesset member Tamar Gozanski.
"One is the war, the occupation and the West Bank settlements; the
other is the government's neo-liberal economic policy."
-
- She describes the combination of these as catastrophic:
"While military expenditure and the cost of the settlements are enormous
and almost untouchable, social welfare budgets are being cut all the time.
Meanwhile bank and stock-exchange profits continue to climb. This government
is intensifying the policies of its predecessors; it does the same thing,
only more so."
-
- In particular, when it comes to social inequality. Barbara
and Shlomo Swirsky, two sociologists who run Tel Aviv's Adva Centre, argue
that "the blows dealt to the social welfare system on the pretext
of budgetary rigour reflect a change in the scale of values. The affluent
Israelis who people the corridors of power are influenced by Social Darwinism.
According to that, the strong deserve help because they are strong; whoever
falters, for whatever reason, is sure to fall by the wayside, and it is
therefore pointless to invest in him. The weak are useless. That is why,
during all these years of so-called state poverty, our governments have
spent a great deal of money on exempting capitalists from taxes, on excessive
military expenditure and settlements, and on huge salaries for top civil
servants."
-
- On a visit to Tel Aviv's HaCarmel market, Vicki Knafo
said: "If there's money for the settlers in the occupied territories,
then thereís no reason why there shouldn't be money for social welfare
benefits."
-
- It is a strong argument, but the single mothers, like
the other protest groups, have failed to produce a mass movement.
-
- Tamar Gozanski says: "Although Knafo's movement
is authentic, it will not take off without the active support of the opposition
parties, including the Labour party and Shas, and the Histadrut trade-union
federation. It gets some support from women's solidarity and Jewish-Arab
cooperation, but that is not enough."
-
- Surely a large part of the population is opposed to the
government's anti- social measures? "Yes, but the same people support
the government because of the serious political situation."
-
- Shlomo Wirsky agrees: "Tsahal's continuing war in
the occupied territories and the Palestinian terrorist attacks are preventing
the emergence of a large-scale social movement."
-
- Avraham Schochat says much the same: "The people
of Israel should know that a continuation of the conflict with the Palestinians
will turn Israel into a poorer country that provides less services to its
citizens. Anyone who thinks that the country can remain on a path of economic-social
collapse, while embroiled in a security conflict, doesn't know what he's
talking about" (5).
-
- - Joseph Algazy is a journalist on the Tel Aviv daily
Ha'aretz
-
- (1) See Moti Bassok, "Shochat rejects treasuryís
forecast of 2.5 % growth", Haíaretz, English internet edition,
28 August 2003.
-
- (2) These figures, and the following, were published
by Haíaretz, Yediot Aharonot or Maíariv in August 2003.
-
- (3) Moti Bassok, ibid.
-
- (4) Brochure published in Jerusalem, April 2003.
-
- (5) Moti Bassok, ibid.
-
- - Translated by Barry Smerin
-
- All Rights Reserved © 1997-2003 Le Monde diplomatique
-
- http://mondediplo.com/2003/10/12israel
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