1 in 3 Israeli children live in poverty

January 28th, 2006 at 11:06 Björn Hallberg

Apparently there are consequences even for the seemingly invincible. Like in the militarized US, people come second, ironically the same people whom the state claims to protect. An accentuated and narrow focus on security (one of the pillars of militarization) combined with a right-wing economic policy has been devastating.
And poverty statistics in 2000 were staggeringly high to begin with.

Haaretz - The number of poor in Israel has risen sharply since 2000, with a staggering 34.1 percent of children now living in poverty, according to a report issued Monday by the National Insurance Institute.

A total of 1.58 million people now live in poverty in Israel, half a million more than in 2000, when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office. The number of poor children has reached 738,000, up from 714,000 last year and 482,000 in 2000.

The report shows that 24.1 percent of Israelis are currently living under the poverty line, up from 18.8 percent in 2000.

Mohammad Barakah notes something very intriguing …

“Whoever behaves cruelly to another nation will eventually behave cruelly to his own. The poor and the weak will pay the price of the occupation and the settlements.”

Suggesting the old boomerang effect of imperialism and colonialism. An idea that still holds true and can be shown to operate in most foreign brutalities. As Michel Foucault put it …

[...] on the mechanisms of power in the West, and on the apparatuses, institutions, and techniques of power. A whole series of colonial models was brought back to the West, and the result was that the West could practice something resembling colonization … on itself

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