Against the backdrop of the election campaign, the alternative poverty report by the Latet non-profit organization, according to which 2.45 million people in Israel are poor, became a political weapon today. Those attacking the government from left and right were joined by former president Shimon Peres, who said that the poverty report was "a severe indictment" of ourselves. "The figures in the report cannot be dismissed or treated lightly. Hungry children and old people cannot be fed with declarations. We are robbing our children of their future. The elections are an opportunity to bring about social justice so that we shall be a people at peace with itself, socially strong. I would expect all the parties to put dealing with poverty at the head of their priorities," Peres said.
Responding to Peres's remarks, the Likud party said in a statement, "When Prime Minister Netanyahu raised the minimum wage to NIS 4,300 in 2011, that was action, not declarations. When we legislated free education from age three and saved NIS 800 monthly for each family for each child, that was action, not declarations. When we introduced free dental care for children up to age twelve, that was action, not declarations. When we gave a free year of higher education to demobilized soldiers from the Negev and the Galilee and reduced mobile telephony prices, that was action, not declarations. The only declarations are the baseless mud-slinging of people on the left against Netanyahu and the Likud. And now, after the declarations against Netanyahu, would you on the left please tell us what you have done for the public?"
The opposition exploited the poverty figures to attack Netanyahu. The Labor party issued a statement saying, "While Netanyahu is busy scaring people with external threats, he has nurtured with his own hands an internal strategic threat in the shape of 2.5 million poor people. The fact that one in three children lives in poverty represents a ringing knell of failure for Netanyahu's economic policy, which promised us that the wealth would trickle down. For anyone still in need of proof that the Likud long ago abandoned social sensitivity, this report provides decisive evidence. The people of Israel have by now realized this, and will show Netanyahu and the Likud the door in less than three months' time."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 22, 2014
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