The Cultural and Social Aspects of Poverty

On June 11th, 2006, a Roundtable Forum was held to discuss the cultural and social aspects of poverty in Israel as represented in the media. This discussion was purposely held right before the Israel Democracy Institute's Annual Economic Forum, the Caesarea Forum, which was held on June 20-22 and broadcast live on this site. This year’s Caesarea Forum dedicated a full session to the discussion of poverty. Here are some of the highlights:

• The President of the Israel Democracy Institute, Dr. Arye Carmon said that, in general, poverty is on the rise and what we need to contend with is how to turn this around. Dr. Carmon also stressed the fact that this is the first time that the Caesarea Forum, 14 years running, has dedicated an entire day to this issue. He also reminded the crowd that special guest Professor Robert M. Solow from MIT will be at this year’s economic forum.
  
• Professor Gadi Wolfsfeld, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, shared his research on articles on poverty that appear in newspapers. His one-year survey, from April 2005 to March 2006, of 4 leading Israeli newspapers, showed that an average of 0.3% of newspaper articles directly address the issue of poverty.  His research analyzed how often these articles appeared, how much space was dedicated to them by size and by relative cost regarding their placement, what institutions were mentioned the most in these articles, and the extent to which particular groups are represented therein. (Professor Wolfsfeld is scheduled to speak at the economic forum on Wednesday, June 21st, at 5:00 pm ISL.)
  
• Smadar Peled, from Channel 2 news, pointed to the fact that it is difficult to speak about poverty as a topic, since it is so broad. There are poor people who work and nontenured sub-contractors. It is not enough to speak of an empty refrigerator – an image which this discussion repeatedly referred to.
  
• Rabbi David Zilbershlag, Founder and head of Meir Panim soup kitchens spoke about the fact that many of the poor feel that they have nothing left to live for – and that in itself leads to a lack of proper health care, education and employment. He also spoke about the need for politicians to try and gain funds to help the poor, regardless of their religion, origin, and affiliation, as opposed to each trying to gain funds for their own particular group.
  
• Abir Kubati, from Mossawa - the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel, spoke about the Arab sector and stated that 60% of Arab children live in poverty. She also stated that certain stigmas about the population were simply untrue, including statements about Arabs not wanting to work, and that Muslim Arabs who have many children are the only ones who remain poor.
  
• Attorney Yitzhak Dassa, from the Tebeka Center for Legal Aid and Advocacy for Ethiopian Jews, pointed out that weak populations of poor people generally have a harder time reaching the media and interesting them in their stories.

Other speakers included Professor Arie Arnon from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Professor Yossi Yona from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Dr. Eli Avraham from the University of Haifa, and Journalist Merav Arlozorov, the Marker.