Knesset approves new National Authority to Combat Poverty

Lawmakers vote 39-0 to approve the third and final reading of a law mandating the establishment of a National Authority to Combat Poverty.

Sponsored by lawmakers belonging to the Arab Hadash-Ta’al party, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, and the left wing The Democrats party, the law calls for the foundation of an agency under the aegis of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs tasked with coordinating government-wide efforts in reducing poverty over the long term — including by preventing families on the verge from falling into poverty in the first place.

The new authority will, among other things, formulate a multi-year national plan and annual plans to combat poverty and prevent poverty and and oversee their implementation and a establish National Center for Information and Research in the field of poverty and its management. It will also be empowered to assist families under the poverty line which have not yet received help through traditional welfare channels.

Under the law, the Social Affairs Minister, currently Shas’s Yaakov Margi, will appoint a 29-member council, made up of representatives of the public and various government agencies, to outline the authority’s policies.

The passage of the law is celebrated as a “historic day of good news for the State of Israel” by Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, who says that the new authority will deal with issues ranging from early childhood poverty to employment and welfare and “will lead long-term programs to improve the situation of the weaker sectors” of Israeli society.

“There is a public in the State of Israel today that wakes up this morning and does not ask itself who the new head of the Shin Bet is or who was appointed to this or that position,” he says, referring both to the effects of poverty and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial effort to replace the head of the Shin Bet security agency while it investigates his senior aides.

The law is also welcomed by Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee chairman Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism), who said it would “prevent many families from falling into poverty,” and by Hadash-Ta’al MK and co-sponsor Aida Touma-Suleiman, who described her legislation’s passage as “a significant achievement in the struggle for social justice.”

“While the government is cutting welfare budgets and deepening disparities by funding a destructive war, we have succeeded in passing a law that rightly stands on the side of the poor and the disadvantaged – not as those in need of mercy, but as those with the right to live with dignity,” Touma-Suleiman states.

Some critics have expressed concern that the bill would help circumvent financial sanctions on members of the ultra-Orthodox community who evade the draft.