Israel is second only to its closest ally, the United States, in terms of socio-economic gaps among Western nations. A report recently prepared by the National Insurance Institute (NII) has found that the number of poor Israelis has grown over 250 percent since the mid-1980s, so that nearly one in five Israelis—some 1.17 million people—currently live below the poverty line.
The gap between the Jewish state’s rich and poor is evidenced in widening parities of income, property, capital and education. The income of a top decile Israeli family stands at 39,130 new Israeli shekels ($8,429), 12.1 times higher than the income of a bottom decile family, living off a monthly NIS3,225.
The report shows that Israel’s upper 10 percent of the population hold NIS 800 billion of the nation’s private capital, while the remaining 30 percent of the capital—some NIS340 billion—divided amongst 90 percent of the population. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
