More than 450,000 children suffer from “high risk” situations such as sexual abuse, domestic abuse, severe disability without access to proper resources, or a lack of basic rights, a non-governmental organization said in a report Thursday. “Israeli children are exposed to a tremendous array of many different pressures, to which few children in the world are similarly exposed,” said Yizhak Kadman, director of the National Council of the Child, in a speech presenting the report. Nearly a third of Israel's children live under the poverty line, more than triple the rate in 1980, and more than 80,000 lack legal status – figures the NGO said necessitate an overhaul of the country's policy on children. The organization called for a number of policy changes in the coming year, including the establishment of a national center for child abuse prevention and a state commission dealing with dangers posed to children by the Internet.
(photo credit: The Jerusalem Post)