One in 10 Israelis in Poverty, According to Government Figures

One in 10 Israelis lives below the poverty level and half of them are children, according to newly released government statistics.

Among recent immigrants, the poverty rate soars to a record 34 percent, the National Insurance Institute says in a just-published survey of 1991 figures involved in social security programs.

Poverty-level incomes were the lot of 562,000 Israelis in 1991, a 4 percent rise over 1990. Of this number, 234,000 were children. But the rise was lower than the year before, when poverty level incomes registered a 14.6 increase over 1989.

Government allocations warded off an increase to as much as 20 percent in the number of those living below the poverty line. A four-fold rise occurred in this category over the past decade, making the rate in Israel the highest among Western countries. Officials as the insurance agency voiced hopes this week that the Treasury would resume payment of allowances for first and second children in a family.

The allowances were withdrawn by the previous government, leaving allocations only for families with three or more children.

In other economic news, the government’s $40 billion state budget for 1993 passed its first reading in the Knesset on Monday by a comfortable 55-43 majority, with one abstention.

The government was pleasantly surprised by the supporting vote of Shmuel Halpert in the opposition United Torah Judaism, a fervently Orthodox party widely rumored to be an eventual candidate for partnership in the governing coalition.

Knesset Member Dan Tichon of the opposition Likud bloc charged that the vote resulted from a promise given by the Treasury to allocate $20 million for yeshivot associated with United Torah Judaism. The charge was denied by the Treasury.

The Arab parties were a disappointment for the government. Although they generally vote with the coalition, the Hadash Communists and the Arab Democratic Party voted against the budget, in protest over its failure to allocate $28 million for development in the Arab sector. Finance Minister Avraham Shohat promised the sums, including allocations for building 300 new classrooms in Arab schools, would be added at a later stage of the budget process.

Although the Knesset devoted all of Wednesday to consideration of the budget, attention was focused on the Tel Aviv stock exchange, where a sharp drop of 3.75 percent was registered in share values. Analysts attributed it to profit- taking following a record rise of 80 percent in the market since the beginning of the year. On Thursday, share prices began to climb back up.

Monitoring of the market came as the government this week drastically devalued the shekel to stand at 2.6 per U.S. dollar, a record high for the dollar. Analysts said the new rate reflects a strengthening dollar in the world market and increased demand for foreign currency after the issuing of trust funds that include foreign investment.

Experts believe the slow but consistent devaluation of the shekel will continue. They say the government no longer fears devaluation will trigger renewed inflation in view of the economic slowdown and the fact that price hikes are lagging behind the devaluation rate.