chamsa

Ben Murane

Concentration of wealth in Israel has increased, announced a study published by Business Data Israel in February. According to the study, just eighteen families earn one-third of Israel’s commercial revenues, totaling approximately 44 billion dollars. This revenue counts for 32 percent of income within the State of Israel, but does not reflect the families’ inherited wealth, savings or any income from investments outside the country. The families’ earnings increased four percent from the previous year.

The Labor party responded to the statistics, saying they were proof that former finance chairs and current Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu parceled off state-owned industries to cronies during their pushes for privatization. “It’s no coincidence that of the 18 families, at least seven are considered Olmert’s close friends,” the party said in a statement.

Meanwhile, one in four Israelis is below the poverty line, according to the National Insurance Institute’s January poverty report. It stated the number of poor Israelis since 2000 has increased by 600,000 to a total of 1.6 million people in 2005.

While many Israelis were disheartened by news of the country’s widening economic disparity, numerologists were tickled that the number eighteen continues to appear in Jewish life.