Israel is becoming ‘Third World’ economy, warn 200 leading economists

Israel is becoming a Third World economy, over 200 leading Israeli economists warned yesterday in response to the national budget announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition.

Details of this year’s budget were revealed by Israel’s occupation government in a meeting held in a tunnel underneath Al-Aqsa Mosque. The meeting was seen as an attempt to demonstrates the Zionist state’s sovereignty over the occupied city of Jerusalem and its holy sites. The tunnel in question is located under Al-Buraq Wall (the “Western Wall”) of the Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa.

In their warning reported by Haaretz, the academics cited massive subsidies expected to go towards the ultra-Orthodox school system, as well as bigger stipends for full-time yeshiva students. The current far-right Israeli government is heavily influenced by extreme religious parties. Netanyahu is said to have agreed last year to boost public funding substantially for ultra-Orthodox institutions that don’t teach core secular subjects such as maths and English, to the tune of billions of shekels a year.

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According to Haaretz, concessions made by Netanyahu to build his far-right coalition include an agreement to boost stipends for ultra-Orthodox men who eschew full-time employment for lifetime study in institutes catering for advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature, or a traditional Jewish educational institution yeshiva for married men. Netanyahu also agreed to increase funding for food vouchers from 850 million shekels ($234m) to a billion shekels, despite warnings that the new system for determining eligibility would politicise the social welfare system.

“In order to enable integration into the labour market, children should receive an education that enables this, and adults should face incentives to do so,” the economists are reported as warning Israel. “Unfortunately, the Israeli government not only does not deal with this dire issue, but also chooses measures that exacerbate the problem and deteriorate the future of Israel’s economy towards the Third World.”

Relations between the ultra-Orthodox and secular communities are extremely fraught in Israel. Tensions are said to be extremely high, so much so that the two communities are “Heading for War” according to one Israeli commentator. Secular Israelis are said to be incensed over the billions of shekels earmarked for the Haredi community and their educational institutions.

According to Education Ministry documents obtained by Haaretz, in 2019 more than 90,000 Haredi students – 27 per cent of all ultra-Orthodox students – were excused from studying core secular subjects that year. Resentment is fuelled further because the Haredi community is growing at a much higher rate than any other group and only contributes two per cent to government revenue from income tax.

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