Study: Israel's top percentile now wealthier

Society's economic gaps remain significant, "belie promises economic growth will 'in the end' benefit everyone," according to Adva Center.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
A poor woman poverty impoverished homeless 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
A poor woman poverty impoverished homeless 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
Israel's top percentile became wealthier in the past decade, while the lower socioeconomic levels of its society still experience economic decline, according to a report published by the Adva Center for Equality and Social Justice in Israel.
Released on Sunday, the report indicated growing economic gaps in Israeli society and touched on a wide range of issues, including gender equality progress in salaries, the shrinking of the economic gap between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish Israelis and difficulties with the Israel education system.
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According to the document, the gaps between society's upper and lower percentiles are rigid and leave "the impression of the deep stability of inequality in Israel."
"Income figures for the last decade belie the promise of the political leadership, according to which economic growth will 'in the end' benefit everyone," the Adva Center explained. "In 2010, Israel's Gross Domestic Product was 36 percent higher than in 2000, but the only incomes that grew significantly as a consequence were those of households in the top percentile  – at the rate of 19 percent."
The report also discussed the "double risk" the Israeli market has faced in the past decade - that of international economic instability and domestic unrest resulting from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Because of these difficulties, Israel's GDP did not enjoy the significant growth other countries have since 2000.