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inequality in Israel

A homeless person in the streets of Jerusalem, December 18, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)
January 30, 2026, 10:01 am
Almost 2 million Israelis below poverty line, including 1 in 4 kids – latest annual report
National Insurance figures for 2024 show 21% of Israelis live in poverty, including 880,000 children and 150,000 elderly citizens, the 2nd-highest rate of child poverty among OECD countries
By ToI Staff
Wearing traditional costumes, children take part in the 40th annual Christmas parade heading toward the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel, December 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
January 25, 2026, 6:34 am
Once a bustling pilgrimage site, today’s decaying Nazareth is a city in crisis
Residents of Jesus’ hometown, now an Arab Israeli political epicenter, say a brief resurgence from Christmas tourism isn’t a meaningful fix to fiscal crisis and rising crime
By Eliyahu Freedman
Illustrative image of a person undergoing a CT scan. (peakSTOCK via iStock by Getty Images)
February 5, 2023, 6:38 am
Israel’s richest locales show 20% lower cancer death rate than middle-income areas
As possible explanations for its findings, Taub Center analysis suggests ‘health inequality’ based on socioeconomic status and unequal health provision outside central Israel
By Nathan Jeffay
A man shops for disposable plastic tableware in Osher Ad Supermarket in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem, October 27, 2021, shortly after new taxes on disposables went into effect in Israel. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
January 12, 2023, 4:16 am
Why Israel’s new right-wing leaders immediately made plasticware inexpensive again
Many in the Haredi community saw the last government’s tax hike on disposable utensils and sweetened drinks as a targeted attack, which the religious right-wing is now walking back
By Deborah Danan
An estimated 400,000 Israelis demonstrate in the center of Tel Aviv to protest against rising housing prices and social inequalities in the Jewish state, September 3, 2011. (Jack Guez/AFP)
September 10, 2022, 11:35 am
Inequality between Israel’s Mizrahi, Ashkenazi Jews to be measured in new statistics
New policy will make it possible to learn far more than is currently known about gaps in wealth, education and other factors between Jews of different ethnicities
By Asaf Elia-Shalev
Israeli teachers demonstrate for better pay and conditions in Tel Aviv on May 30, 2022. The placard roughly translates as "Our sense of mission shouldn't mean lousy conditions" (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
July 28, 2022, 2:32 pm
The perils of our increasingly unequal Israel
Undervaluing our teachers is not only deplorably shortsighted. It’s also emblematic of an economy dangerously dividing into an often callous elite and a demotivated majority
By David Horovitz
Israelis board a Kavim bus on the main street in the central city of Petah Tikva, June 24, 2015. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
June 13, 2022, 10:06 am
Bus driver blocks girl, 13, from boarding, says her clothing is ‘sexual harassment’
Kavim company is investigating incident after Tamara Lahav says driver would not allow her on with shorts and tank top
By ToI Staff
Amal Elsana-Alh’jooj leads an identity workshop with ICAN fellows at McGill University in Montreal, 2018. (Courtesy)
February 17, 2020, 3:38 am
Far from her village, rare Bedouin feminist fights for Israeli women and peace
Now armed with a PhD in Canada, Amal Elsana-Alh’jooj pursues her vision for greater equality between men, women, Jews, and Arabs in her homeland
By Robert Sarner
Yifat Bitton, co-founder and chair of Tmura, the Israeli Anti-Discrimination Center, gave the keynote address at the first-ever Mizrahi Legal Studies conference at Harvard Law School, held on December 10 and 11, 2019. (Rich Tenorio/ Times of Israel)
December 13, 2019, 12:56 am
Harvard hosts first-ever conference for emerging field of Mizrahi legal studies
Diverse speakers and listeners including Palestinians and Israelis, participate in inaugural confab for those seeking to curb inequality for Israel’s Middle Eastern Jews
By Rich Tenorio
Illustrative. A man gives money to a homeless person, as he holds an umbrella to protect them both from the rain on Jaffa Street, Jerusalem, on November 3, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90/File)
November 26, 2019, 10:30 pm
Israel’s economic inequality worsened in 2018, for first time in 5 years
Despite widening gap between rich and poor, data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics shows the average gross income of an Israeli household increased by 4.3% since 2017
By ToI Staff
A Lasova restaurant soup kitchen employee serves bread to the needy in Tel Aviv on September 8, 2019. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)
September 11, 2019, 10:04 am
Israeli economic growth overshadows struggles of working poor
According to the National Insurance Institute, almost 1.8 million people live below poverty line
By Guillaume LAVALLÉE
A demonstration protesting rising rent rates in 2012. (Uri Lenz/Flash90)
September 8, 2019, 10:13 am
State’s inability to fix the housing crisis leaves many out in the cold
The spike in real estate prices has made millionaires out of homeowners, while renters suffer; solutions exist, but nothing scares politicians more than taxing wealthy voters
By Omer Sharvit
Lian Najami speaking at an Israeli Independence Day student gala at Boston University, in Boston, Mass., April 6, 2017. (Nir Landau for Combined Jewish Philanthropies via JTA)
December 16, 2017, 12:34 pm
Israel’s first Arab Rhodes scholar loves her country and is trying to change it
‘I have Israeli chutzpah’ says Lian Najami. ‘I always have in mind: What can I do from here?’
By Andrew Tobin
Illustrative image of Israeli infantry soldiers resting on their equipment early on 13 January 2009 (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
October 24, 2017, 12:02 pm
Poor IDF recruits earn cash taking on fellow soldiers’ guard duty
Officers turn a blind eye to illegal practice, which undermines army’s aim to be equalizing force in society
By Andrew Tobin
Ultra-Orthodox Jews read lamentations outside one of the entrances to the Temple Mount, during the annual Tisha B'Av (Ninth of Av) fasting and a memorial day, commemorating the destruction of ancient Jerusalem temples, on August 14, 2016, in Jerusalem's Old City. (AFP PHOTO / AHMAD GHARABLI)
September 26, 2017, 4:31 pm
Bid to boost employment of ultra-Orthodox men is stalling, report says
Finance Ministry says the increase in employment of Haredi men is slow and will not meet government targets
By Shoshanna Solomon
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