Unemployment on the Rise in “Israeli” Entity Due to War on Gaza

By Staff, Agencies

The “Israeli” regime’s so-called “National” Insurance Institute published its Poverty Report 2022, which showed growing poverty rates and the severity of social and economic issues within the “Israeli” entity amid already growing fears of the exacerbation of said issues in light of the war on Gaza, the “Israeli” Ynet website reported on Thursday.

The Hebrew website said it was difficult to change the policy of the “Israeli” regime to prevent the families affected by the war from slipping below the poverty line, saying the regime’s impotence was leading settlers to the edge of the poverty line, and allowing them to fall into poverty before any attempts at intervention.

Moreover, the “Israeli” news outlet stressed that there was a growing concern about exacerbating poverty due to the war, as reservists “will be in the poverty report next year”.

The social and economic conditions are prompting "grave concerns", the report said, wherein it was found that the poverty rates were steep, as 1.98 million “Israeli” settlers lived below the poverty line in 2022.

While employment is “one of the main means of lifting people out of poverty,” the report states, this does not necessarily happen "when wages are low, as poverty among working families is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon."

30.9% of adults in the occupied territories lived in "food insecurity for economic reasons" in the second and third quarters of 2023, 12.6% of which had very low food security, and 18.3% had low food security, according to a survey conducted by the “Israeli” institute.

Talking to Ynet, the head of the “Israeli” Food Security Council, Professor Roni Strier, stressed that 2022's report was as dangerous as previous reports, as it demonstrates the erroneous policy that has been causing an increased level of poverty.

According to Strier, the poverty rate within the “Israeli” entity was “among the highest in the world,” adding, “If we talk about poverty as a lack of job opportunities, social security, housing, and food, then ‘Israel’ excels in striking down these four areas of security."

The data, Ynet said, reinforces what Strayer said. In 2022, the percentage of those feeling poor and the percentage of families unable to cover all their expenses increased, and the rate of those giving up a meal at least once every two days and recreational activities for economic reasons also increased.

Since the mark of the war on Gaza, workers have been drafted to serve with the “Israel” Occupation Forces [IOF] troops, marking a drastic economic stump for the "Israeli" entity. Before the war, only 3% of the workforce was missing from labor markets. The statistic saw a 17% jump following October 7, according to the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies, an “Israeli” think tank.

Consequentially, 20% of the “Israeli” workforce, or 900,000 “Israeli” settlers, are now either enlisted in the IOF, unemployed at home, fled from settlements where operations have been concentrated, such as by the borders of Lebanon and Gaza, or are unable to work due to the destruction of their work industry.

Although negative estimates of “Israeli” economic growth have been a concern for the occupation, accounting for the material losses it has experienced, as well as the drastic cost of war, the “Bank of ‘Israel’” projected an ambitious 2% growth, referencing previous wars and the COVID-19 epidemic that did not affect the economy as expected. However, different sources claimed that if the “Israeli” economy were to see growth, it would top at 0.5%.

“The wide range of projections that we are seeing comes from some of the different assumptions about how long and how intense the fighting will be,” said the vice president of research at the "‘Israel’ Democracy Institute" and a former governor of the "Bank of ‘Israel’”, Karnit Flug.

On Sunday, the Taub Center revealed that almost 200,000 “Israeli” settlers filed for unemployment compensation since October 7.

Moreover, around 300,000 “Israelis” were drafted as reservists, 139,000 of whom were withdrawn from the workforce. This signifies the second-largest reserve draft in the occupation's history, the first being during the “Yom Kippur” War.

The “Israeli” regime had delivered aid to reservists who had to leave their jobs, but benefits have been slower than anticipated.

The chairman of the “Israeli” regime’s oversight committee and member of the Knesset, Mickey Levy, warned that the occupation entity is "facing an economic catastrophe" under the government of “Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Talking to the “Israeli” Maariv newspaper on December 21, the senior official said that the "government budget has become a plundering budget," criticizing Netanyahu's actions as “ridiculous and frightening”.

Providing more details, Levy explained that the “Israeli” regime has inserted "illogical" issues in the 2023 budget, such as allocating over 600 million shekels to bolster "Jewish identity and culture," questioning whether "identity awareness" required such spending.

Furthermore, he added that there are "unnecessary ministries in the government," noting that in the past, there were fewer than 30 ministers, but now there are 38 ministries, at least 10 of which are non-essential.

"At a time when every shekel is supposed to go towards war efforts, in this government, no one seems to care," added the Knesset member.