The Special Committee for the Rights of the Child, chaired by MK Eli Dallal (Likud), convened on Tuesday. They discussed the topic of poor children in Israel, based on the National Insurance Institute (NII) report. And the figures are alarming.
It’s sicking. On the one hand, the economy is robust and the start-up nation boosts against all mayhem the left tries to cause in recent weeks by not really acknowledging their loss and not really respecting the democratic institutions. On the other hand, the average Israeli citizen is simply poor. The figures are frightening. The Debt of families stands at an average of NIS 100,000.
NII Deputy Director General Nitza Kasir opened the meeting with a presentation of poverty statistics for 2021, saying: “There are 1.95 million poor people, and about 854,000 poor children in Israel. We see an increase in absolute numbers in the number of poor people, and 28% of children in the State of Israel are poor.”
Kasir said further that in 2021 the number of children living in a state of food insecurity stood at 665,000 children. “One in five children lives in food insecurity. That’s an alarming statistic. Half of them suffer from severe food insecurity, (…) In an international comparison, Israel ranks highest among developed countries in terms of poverty among children” Kasir said.
Committee Chair MK Dallal ist 100% right saying: “I am very troubled, because there is a reverse trend here. As the state advances, we go backwards on the issue of vulnerable populations, and the poverty index among children is simply intolerable. We’re not talking about luxuries, but about children who are hungry for bread. It’s very painful when you see abundance and food being discarded in many places, and it’s as if this happens in a different country.”
Israel has to fix this. If the left goes for demonstrations to fight hunger of Israeli children, they would have my hand. But not for causing mayhem and harming economy and the democratic institutions.