Mada's Occasional Papers

Summary:
This report describes the average poverty level of Palestinian citizens in Israel during the last decade. It corroborates the claims that the main sources of poverty are discrimination and neglect by the state, towards the Arab minority, and underscores the ever-widening gaps between the two groups (Arab and Jewish).

In order to test the real effect of transfer payments and taxes on the reduction of poverty in the Arab minority sector, as opposed to the Jewish population, the report tests the poverty average in terms of net income (after social-welfare transfer payment and taxes), and also in terms of gross income. The gross-income data provides stronger evidence of the dimensions of poverty and the gaps between the groups.

Throughout the past decade, there has been a continued increase in the poverty rate within the Arab minority as opposed to the moderate decline and stabilization within the Jewish population. The poverty rate among Arab families rose from a level of 47 percent in 1990 to 65 percent in 2002, based on gross income, and from a level of 34.5 percent to 44.7 percent, based on net income. In other words, state intervention, through transfer payment and taxes, succeeds in removing from the circle of poverty about 23 percent of poor Arab families. Conversely, the poverty rate in the Jewish sector is declining slightly, and is stabilizing at around 30 percent, based on gross income, or around 41 percent, based on net income. Therefore, intervention by the state reduces the poverty rate by about half.

In the year 2002, nearly 100,000 Arabs families were living under the poverty level. The poverty rate among Arab families in Israel is three times higher than among Jewish families. The severe distress of poverty in the Arab sector is discernible in all types of families. The depth of poverty is greater than in any other population group in the country, and the transfer payment and taxes do not help Arab families break free from their state of economic distress. Among Arab children, the poverty rate (based on gross income) was 70 percent, as opposed to 54.4 percent, a decline of only 30 percent, as opposed to the decline among Jewish children of nearly 50 percent, after the state's intervention.

Arab families have become not only a focus of poverty, unemployment and frustration, but also a minority group bereft of all empowerment mechanisms. Worst of all, Arab families are dangerously increasing dependent on the mercies of the state. This situation has deteriorated in recent years, partly due to the failure in addressing the factors responsible for it. Moreover, these underlying causes have been exacerbated in the past few years due to the continuing decline in Israel's economic situation and economic program that serve to sever any links to the old welfare state.

The book is published in Arabic and Hebrew.