According to a new report published by Israel’s National Insurance Institute revealed that some 21.7%, or 1,712,900 of Israel’s citizens live beneath the poverty line.
The report’s data indicates that the Jewish state is the poorest member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, and with the greatest inequality. The report further notes that the standard of living in Israel had risen by 3.3%, and that the index that reflects inequality, the Gini co-efficient, had decreased by 1.6%. Among the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox community, the poverty percentage dropped from 54% to 49%, while in the Israeli-Arab sector, poverty increased from 52.6% to 53.3%.