The Labor and Welfare Committee convened last Tuesday, March 18, to approve for second and third readings the National Authority for Eradication of Poverty Bill, 2024, sponsored by MKs Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash), Yinon Azoulay (Shas) and Naama Lazimi (Labor). The bill proposes to establish a National Authority for Eradication of Poverty, which will “work to reduce poverty, prevent its spread and extricate people from a state of poverty, all with the desire to promote every person’s right to a dignified subsistence.”
MK Touma Sliman said after the vote: “This is a bill that I have dreamed of for a long time. I hope that from now on, action for eradication of poverty will not only consist of providing help here and there but rather a comprehensive and integrated policy that will help everyone avoid being in a state of poverty.”
MK Touma-Sliman (second from left) during the debate at the Labor and Welfare Committee of the Knesset, Tuesday, March 18, 2025 (Photo: Knesset)
The bill lists a variety of roles for the authority in eradication and prevention of poverty, including preparation of annual and multi-annual plans and supervision of their implementation, and advising the Minister of Welfare Affairs and the Government in the fields of combating and preventing poverty. In addition, the authority will be called upon to present an opinion on [primary] legislation and secondary legislation being advanced in the Knesset, including the annual budget bill, addressing the possible effects of the proposed arrangements on the campaign against poverty.
The authority will also propose legislation in its areas of activity, will engage in monitoring and follow-up of the activity of government ministries, local authorities and NGOs operating in the poverty eradication field, and will set up and manage a national research and information center in its areas of activity.
In addition it was stipulated that the authority would be able to help, if necessary, the Government and local authorities in their activity to distribute food to populations in need, whether or not they are entitled to assistance from other sources. It was made clear in the debate that under this section, the authority would not serve as a distributor of funds or food but would rather serve as a liaison and would help the qualified agencies. These agencies can request help from the authority, and its goal will be to enable the authorities to extend assistance to families and individuals who are not known to welfare agencies or are served by welfare agencies but are at the threshold of the definition of poverty—as part of fulfilling the goal of prevention of poverty. After several opposition Knesset members and other parties voiced the concern that the original wording of the section could cause lack of clarity, the wording was revised to clarify its meaning. Contrary to the original version of the bill, in which the National Council for Food Security was supposed to be abolished and to operate as a committee under the National Authority for Eradication of Poverty, it was decided that the council would continue to exist and operate as an independent body, separate from the new authority.
In the debate, representatives of the Pitchon Lev and Latet NGOs expressed support for the importance of assisting citizens and families that are not known to the welfare services, as a means of preventing them from entering the circle of poverty.
According to a recent Adva Center study, the war in Gaza together with the proposed 2025 cuts in the national budget, “are expected to negatively affect low-income Israelis, raise the already high rate of poverty in Israel’s geographic periphery, widen inequality between residents of the center and the periphery, increase the number of households in debt, and damage the resilience of households and communities — resilience that is essential for recovery and rehabilitation.”
The study conducted by the Adva Center found that in 2021, 8% of Jewish households were in debt, compared with 19% of Arab households. Despite this situation, Arabs were under-represented in insolvency rehabilitation programs, and the average time it took to return a loan for Arabs was fully 18 times longer than for Jews, even though Arabs’ loans were smaller.
In recent years, against the background of the high cost of living and increased interest rates, a debt crisis has developed among Arab households. These households are more likely than Jewish households to experience economic distress (In 2022, 39% of Arab families lived in poverty, compared with 16% of Jewish families). “This situation has led to a type of double jeopardy: as institutional credit is not readily accessible to Arab citizens, they are dependent on the gray market, which does offer loans, but at high interest rates and danger to life and livelihood if the loans are not repaid in time. This situation not only creates and exacerbates the debt crisis, but also buttresses organized crime, which takes full advantage of the economic distress in Arab society for its own gain,” Adva said.
