Most of Jerusalem's non-Jewish children live below poverty line

20/05/2009

Most of Jerusalem's non-Jewish children live below poverty line

By Nadav Shragai

Tags: Arabs, Poverty Line

Figures released ahead of Jerusalem Day show that at the end of 2008, over one third of Jerusalem's families live below the poverty line, and negative immigration from the capital continues, albeit at a slower rate than in previous years.  The numbers, released by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, show that at the end of 2008, there were 492,400 Jews (some 65 percent of the city's population) and 268,400 Arabs (about 35 percent) living in the capital.  According to the figures, the Arab population continues to grow at a faster rate than the Jewish population - 3 percent a year as opposed to 1 percent. Some 35 percent of families live below the poverty line: 23 percent of the Jewish families and 67 percent of the Arab families. Among children, 48 percent of Jews and 74 percent of non-Jews are defined as poor.  The city continues to experience negative migration, but at a slower pace: In 2008, 4,900 more people moved out of the city than came to live there, whereas in 2006 and 2007, that figure was 6,300. All told, 18,500 people moved out of the city, while 13,600 came to live in Jerusalem.  A majority of those coming to live in Jerusalem are Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox, but many members of these groups are also leaving the city. For example, 650 people from the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak came to live in Jerusalem, but 1,400 moved from the capital to the West Bank community of Betar Ilit in the Judean Hills. Just over one third of those who left Jerusalem went to live in settlements near the capital.  A relatively low 45 percent of Jerusalemites are in the labor force, compared to 56 percent throughout Israel, and 66 percent in Tel Aviv.  A large number of those who are not in the workforce are ultra-Orthodox men and Arab women, which offsets a large number of 15-20 year-olds in the workforce.  Of the capital's 225,000 schoolchildren, approximately 150,000 are Jewish and 75,000 are Arabs. About 40 percent of Jewish children are enrolled in the state secular and orthodox systems, while some 60 percent attend ultra-Orthodox schools.  Over the past five years, the number of students in state secular elementary schools has declined by 11 percent, while their numbers in state Orthodox schools has risen by 5 percent.  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1086819.html

Israel/Occupied Territories: High Court decision institutionalizes racial discrimination

AMNESTY INTERNATIONALPublic StatementAI Index: MDE 15/042/2006 (Public)News Service No: 126 16 May 2006

The decision by the Israeli High Court of Justice on 14 May to uphold a law which explicitly denies family rights on the basis of ethnicity or national origins is a step further in the institutionalization of racial discrimination in Israel. The “Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law” bars family reunification for Israelis married to Palestinians from the Occupied Territories. It specifically targets Israeli Arabs (Palestinian citizens of Israel), who make up a fifth of Israel’s population, and Palestinian Jerusalemites,(1) for it is they who marry Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Thousands of couples are affected by this discriminatory law, which forces Israeli Arabs married to Palestinians to leave their country or to be separated from their spouses and children. Israeli military law forbids Israelis from entering the main population centres in the Occupied Territories and Israeli citizens cannot join their Palestinian spouses there, and at the same time Palestinian spouses staying in Israel without a permit are constantly at risk of being deported and separated from their families. Thus, Israeli-Palestinian couples would ultimately be forced to move to another country in order to live together – an option which is neither feasible nor desirable for those concerned. In addition, Palestinian Jerusalemites would lose their residency and their right to ever live in Jerusalem again if they move out of the city. Five of the 11 High Court of Justice’s judges who ruled on this law on 14 May, including the Court’s President, voted against upholding the law, recognizing that it infringes human rights. The Court’s President, Aharon Barak, stated that the law violates the right of Israeli Arabs to equality. Indeed, the law violates the absolute prohibition on discrimination contained in international human rights law, notably several treaties which Israel has ratified and is obliged to uphold, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The provision in the law which allows for the discretionary granting of temporary residence permits for Palestinian male spouses over 35 and female spouses over 25 is arbitrary in nature and does not alter the discriminatory character of the law. It will also not benefit the majority of Israeli-Palestinian couples, who marry at a younger age. Moreover, the permit applications of spouses who meet the age criteria can be rejected on the grounds that a member of his/her extended family is considered a “security risk” by Israeli security services. Thousands of Palestinians seeking family reunification prior to the passing of this law were rejected on unspecified “security” grounds in circumstances where the failure to provide detailed reasons for each rejection made it impossible for those rejected to mount an effective legal challenge to the decision. The Israeli authorities have sought to justify the law on security grounds but have brought no convincing evidence to substantiate such claims. Even claims that some 25 people, some of whom were born to Israeli parents and were not in Israel as a result of family reunification, have been involved in attacks in security-related offences, cannot justify denying family reunification to every Palestinian. Doing so is discriminatory and disproportionate and would constitute a form of collective punishment, prohibited under international law. Moreover, statements by Israeli officials and legislators who support the new law indicate that it is primarily motivated by demographic, rather than security, considerations - that is, a determination to reduce the percentage of Israeli Arabs among the country's population. The ban on family unification for Israeli-Palestinian couples, initially introduced by an administrative decision of the Interior Minister in 2002 and subsequently passed into law by the Israeli Knesset in July 2003, is due to be reviewed by the Israeli Knesset next July. Amnesty International reiterates its call on the Israeli government and on Members of the Knesset to repeal this law and to ensure that any steps taken to address security concerns, including any amendments to the citizenship law, comply with international human rights law – notably the principle of non-discrimination.(1) Palestinians who remained in Israel after the establishment of the state in 1948 became Israeli citizens, whereas the Palestinian inhabitants of Jerusalem received a special status as permanent residents after Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967 and its subsequent annexation. Today, there are about 230,000 Palestinian permanent residents of Jerusalem.

Source: Amnesty International - http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/042/2006/en/dom-MDE150422006en.html

Arab-Israelis living under the poverty line are 50.1% in 2008

TEL AVIV, January 25, 2009 (WAFA)- Haaretz Israeli Daily Newspaper quoted a report showing that the overall percentage of Palestinians citizens of Israel living below the poverty line declined from 51.4% in the second half of 2007 to 50.1% in the first half of 2008.

Commenting on this figure, Dr. Shlomo Swirski, the academic director of the Adva Center, a non-partisan policy analysis organization, told Haaretz: “When half of the Arab population still lives below the poverty line, this is a national shame and it is difficult to see these figures as a source of pride in achievement.”

The semi-annual poverty report published by the national Insurance Institute also showed a decline in the percentage of senior Israeli citizens living below the poverty line, from 22.6% at the end of 2007 to 22.2% at the beginning of 2008.

While the number of families below the poverty line in the center of Israel decreased among the Jewish population, the report added, it rose among Arabs in both this region and the south. In Haifa and the north, however, the number of Jews below the poverty line rose, while the number of Arabs decreased.

The report stated that 418,000 families were living below the poverty line, representing 1.63 million people, 777,400 of them children.

The percentage of unemployed poor families rose in relation to the previous report for 2007, from 69% to 71.4%. however, the percentage of working poor also rose: Families with two or more breadwinners living below the poverty line increased from 21.3% to 23.6%, and became poorer by a rate of 7 to 10%.

Source:
http://english.wafa.ps/?action=detail&id=12565