PROTEST IN TEL AVIV OVER ISRAELI ECONOMIC CRISIS Press TV has conducted an interview with Kamel Wazne, political analyst from Beirut about the issue of large demonstrations throughout Israel over the high cost of living, poverty and economic policies. The following is an approximate transcript of the interview. Press TV: How do you assess this protest movement of social justice? Wazne: Obviously there is a problem in the economy of Israel. All the numbers that we have looked at shows that there is a decrease in the growth of GDP. Actually the economy was growing at 4-5 percent, but now is declining to 2 percent or 2.5 percent. The jobless unemployment rate is rising to 7 percent and obviously the real estate market is really heating up. So, basically the prices actually exceeded the increase in salaries and the Israeli economy is going to have a deficit of three billion dollars. We have to remember also the people who live below the poverty line in Israel is actually exceeding 23 percent of the population. So almost one quarter of the Israeli population live in poverty. And I think the Israeli politicians want to increase taxes; want to cut spending on education and welfare. And obviously as you mentioned the cost of living is rising and the Israeli economy is facing decline in its exports to Europe and to the rest of the world and the investment that’s supposed to be to give a boost to the Israeli economy and technology has declined drastically. Overall the picture doesn’t look good for the Israeli economy nor for the average Israeli and that is reflected on the street in Tel Aviv and I think a lot of people are going to demonstrate against any increase in taxes and this probably could be the beginning of a stage known in economics as stagflation - a mix of beginning recession and high prices. In economic terms this could be the worst economic condition faced by any country. Press TV: How does American aid affect all this because a large amount of American aid goes to Israel every year. Certainly that should have some affect? Wazne: Well, yes it does lessen the impact of the crisis, but eventually it is a structural crisis, it’s not like a cyclical crisis - It’s not going to happen one time and then go away. This is part of the structure of the economy and I think this is going to have a huge impact especially on those people who haven’t anything. And it goes back to the division within the Israeli community of where they come from; and between all kinds of religious factors; and what’s known as the European Jews versus the Arab Jews who actually make the big divide in terms of who has the money and who is living below poverty. I think this could cut into the Israeli society very deep and probably you are going to see more people joining the demonstrations because when you have the price of goods exceeding the rise in salaries, you have a problem ahead. From the album: Timeline Photos By Russia,Iran,China and North Korea Military Alliance
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 18:33:39 +0000
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