SOLIDARITY Magazine

See more in:
Gaza settlement Palestinian and migrant workers' right to compensation http://www.kavlaoved.org.il/katava_main.asp?news_id=1507&sivug_id=4

Cheap labor, cheap deal
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=613498

No compensation for Arabs losing their jobs in Gush Katif http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/612289.html

4. Wisconsin Plan in Israel - The Wrong Program in the Wrong Place

An article due to be printed in Challenge Magazine Sep. 2005
We print here the first part of the article. You will be able to read it in WAC's site after Sep 20. Those who want it sooner can ask us for the full text to be sent to them soon as attachment in Microsoft word format.

In Early August 2005, the first, experimental steps were taken to implement the Wisconsin Plan in Israel – or as it is named here, Me-ha-Lev: “From the Heart.” Originating in the US State of Wisconsin in the mid 1990’s, it signals a new stage in the privatization of social services, with the aim of eliminating the welfare state. Although the official purpose is to move the jobless from welfare to “workfare,” the real goal is to reduce expenditures by punishing the poor.

Indeed, the proportion of Israelis receiving welfare is way out of line in comparison with most Western states. If there were jobs, it would certainly make sense to help them shift to “workfare.” The problem is that there are no jobs. In the Israeli version, the Wisconsin mechanism is set up to strike thousands of people from the caseload without assuring them of employment.

Israel’s annual Poverty Report, published on August 9, puts it first among western countries in poverty among children. After distribution of welfare payments, a third of Israel’s children (714,000) are below the poverty line (half the median income). The western country occupying second place in poor children, with 27%, is the US. Like much of what arrives these days with the tag “Made in America,” the Wisconsin Plan will deepen poverty.

With the rise of the second Sharon government, in partnership with the neo-liberal Shinui Party, the conditions were ripe for Wisconsin. The Knesset approved the plan in 2003. It jibed well with the reforms of then Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, which included privatization (of the ports, the pension funds, the major telephone company) and drastic cuts in welfare (for the jobless, the physically challenged, single-parent families, and families with children).

During its initial stage, “From the Heart” includes 17,000 of the 160,000 who receive income maintenance. The plan will proceed on an experimental basis for two years in four centers: East and West Jerusalem; Nazareth and Nazareth Ilit; Hadera and the villages of Wadi Ara; and Ashkelon. 30% will be Arabs and 20% new immigrants.

The program will be run by four companies that won the tender. One prerequisite was that each Israeli company had to team up with a foreign company that has already “done Wisconsin” in its own land…

5. Israel's Poverty report shows the disastrous effects of the Government’s Neo liberal reforms.

The growth in child poverty in 2004 in comparison to 2003 is a clear proof of the true nature of the Government policy including the Welfare to Workfare program (see point 4 in this report). The report released by the Israeli National Insurance Institute (NII) says that poverty rates grew by about 50 percent since 1998, with about a third of all children living below the poverty line. Meanwhile, 28,000 additional families dropped below the poverty line in 2004, comprising 107,000 Israelis, 61,000 of them children. Arab citizens' poverty and unemployment is graver than the general Israeli situation due to systematic discrimination, confiscation of lands and all other means of subsistence.

Read more:
Israel leads West in child poverty
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3124397,00.html

Poverty report: 1 in 3 children poor
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3124357,00.html

Easy Comparison – a new databank on the socio-economic situation of Arab Citizens in Israel – Shows a comparison in basic indicators between Israeli Jews and Arabs.
http://www.rikaz.org/en/index.php?s=easy_comp

We suggest to all our reader to go to Challenge Magazine site www.hanitzotz/com/challenge
where you could find a lot of related information. For a one time hard copy of Challenge Magazine contact Editor: Roni Ben Efrat at oda@netvision.net.il