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One in four Israelis "below poverty line" - report

Mahane Yehuda market in west Jerusalem. A new report says 34 percent of Israeli citizens cannot afford to buy vegetables and other nutritious foods. Shabtai Gold/IRIN
    TEL AVIV

    According to the 2008 Annual Poverty Report by Israel’s National Insurance Institute (NII), published in Hebrew on 2 November, one in four Israelis (one in three of them children) is living below the poverty line.



    NII defines the family poverty line as being 50 percent of median family income after tax.



    The total number of poor - some 1,651,300 people including 783,600 children under the age of 18 - is a slight increase on the 1,630,400 recorded in 2007.



    Some NGOs in Israel are concerned that with the current global economic crisis more people will fall below the NII-defined poverty line in 2010.



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    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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