Shamir Rejects Report That One in Eight Israelis Live Below the Poverty Line

Premier Yitzhak Shamir has sharply rejected a report released by the National Insurance Institute (NII) yesterday that one in eight Israelis — 12 percent of the population — live below the poverty line.

According to Shamir,the poorer classes are better off today than under the Labor regimes which governed Israel until 1977, especially if fringe benefits and extra services are taken into consideration. The Finance Ministry agreed with him and accused Tami, a Likud coalition partner, of playing politics and distorting figures.

Tami represents a low income, largely Sephardic constituency. Its minister, Aharan Uzan, holds the Labor and Welfare portfolio in Shamir’s Cabinet. The NII, an agency of that government department, roughly analogous to the Social Security Administration in the U.S., reported that 500,000 people live on a monthly income of less than 14,000 Shekels (about $140) which is only 20 percent of the average salary in Israel.

According to the NII, these people include 200,000 wage-earners and some 300,000 elderly people. The latter are without any source of income other than their NII payments, the report said.

EXPLAINS DEFINITION OF POVERTY

Dr. Israel Katz, a prominent sociologist and a founder and former director general of the NII, explained how the definition of poverty in Israel was determined by the Institute some 20 years ago. “You can use the number of calories and vitamins required for minimum health, for instance, and when we drew up the definition of poverty back in the 1960s, we compared the yardstick with what is in use today — and they jibed,” he said.

“The definition was anybody earning less than 40 percent of the national average and that is the yardstick still used and still valid,” Katz said.

He acknow ledged, however, that “poverty is a relative term. You cannot compare poverty in Israel with that in Bombay. And I presume that a Texan with one Cadillac would feel he was on the poverty line if other Texans had 100 Cadillacs.”

PUBLIC SERVICES ON VERGE OF CHOAS

While controversy developed over the poverty issue, public services throughout Israel seemed on the verge of chaos. Civil servants continued work slowdowns and other labor sanctions to protest the erosion of their wages by runaway inflation. Many government offices and ministries were paralyzed.

Railroad workers continued the strike they began on Sunday. The 4,500 postal workers who also went on strike Sunday, returned to their jobs today, but only temporarily. They announced they would resume their strike because the Communications Ministry refuses to pay them for the three days they were off the job.

The union representing 200 garages which service army cars announced they will no longer accept work from the army or the Defense Ministry because they have not been paid yet for work already done. The payments were delayed because clerks employed by the Defense Ministry are refusing to issue checks to contracors.

Other manufacturers and businesses providing supplies and services to the Defense Ministry complained that the delays in payment are forcing them to take bank loans to stay in business and said they are being forced into bankruptcy.