Soaring Prices, Missing Goods, Plague Passover Shoppers in Israel

With Passover only two weeks away, Israeli housewives are encountering chaotic conditions in supermarkets and groceries, stemming from last week’s price hikes on a wide variety of basic foods and other goods. They are finding many items even higher than the government’s announced ceilings while others have been pulled off the shelves in anticipation of new price rises.

Among the commodities that have gone up in price are many that are in heavy demand for Passover. These include poultry, beef, flour and flour-based foods such as noodles, cakes and a variety of sugar-based products. The Ministry of Commerce has promised that there would be no shortages for the holiday. But the holiday will be the most expensive for Israelis in many years.

There is a severe shortage of cigarettes and other items, mainly because of a dispute between producers and middlemen. The latter claim that the new price lists have reduced their income by several tenths of a percent and refuse to supply the stores. Meanwhile, there has been an unexplained rise in the price of parking. Private parking lots have raised their fees without permission.