Over one million Israeli children live in poverty: NGO
An NGO has found that more than one million Israeli children, or 35.6 percent of all kids in the occupied territories, are living in poverty.
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The food security NGO Latet said in its latest report that in addition to one million children, 1.3 million Israeli adults are also defined as poor.
Overall, 26.5 percent of the entire population in the occupied lands live below the poverty line, according to the report.
It also found that one in four children from the families receiving support from the NGO frequently go to school without a packed lunch, and one in three skip at least one meal a day.
The report further said that some 6 percent of aid-dependent Israeli children have had to beg for donations, another 6 percent collected food from the ground or garbage bins, and some 5.4 percent stole food.
"When there are more than half a million poor families and more than a million poor children, you cannot just get used to it and accept it," said Latet chairman Gilles Darmon.
"Israeli governments may have gotten used to having so many poor people, but the poor children will never get used to it."
Additionally, Latet CEO Eran Weintraub said that the Israelis have simply got used to such reports as they have "the worst poverty rates in the West."
In recent months, Israel has seen a wave of price hikes in electricity, water, gas, food, insurance and property tax.
Inspired by France's 'yellow vests' movement, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Friday to blame the Israeli regime for rising living costs.
According to the Latet report, 53 percent of the Israeli families defined as poor did not have enough food while 72 percent feared that their food supplies would be finished before there was any more money.
It also found that 71 percent of aid recipients in Israel are in debt, 49 percent in foreclosure proceedings and more than half of them do not have access to heating.
Israeli lawmaker Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin described the figures as a "disgrace" to the regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This report attests to the severe detached nature of a government suffering from choice blindness – no traffic jams with new cars or lines at Ben-Gurion Airport can hide the shameful hunger of one million children,” she said.
“Anyone who does not understand the meaning of a million hungry children, even if you cannot witness the horrific sights of swollen bellies because there is always white bread and margarine available, will never try to solve the problem and the social gaps."
