The New Dark Age

11 April, 2010 — The Real News Network

OECD finds Israel has biggest poverty rate of developed world. Economists blame neo liberal reforms.

This week, the OECD will decide whether to include Israel as its 31st member state. The OECD is an organization of the developed nations of the world and in January it conducted its first economic review of Israel. The OECD’s secretary general Angel Guria congratulated Israeli Prime Minster while presenting the review for his dedication to neo liberal reforms and noted that Israel would be welcome in the organization. The review, which according to internal OECD documents used misleading statistics, found that if it were to be accepted, Israel would be the country with the biggest poverty rate in the organization. The Real News’ Lia Tarachansky spoke to Israeli economists Shir Hever and Shlomo Swirski to understand how Israel came to develop such a poverty rate.

Bio
Shlomo Swirski is an economist and the founder of the Adva Center, a non-partisan policy analysis institute whose mandate is to examine Israeli society from the perspective of equality and social justice. He is also the author of Politics and Education in Israel and Politics and Education in Israel: Comparisons with the United States.

Shir Hever is an economist at the Alternative Information Center, a joing Palestinian-Israeli organization based in Jerusalem and Beit-Sahour, Palestine. Researching the economic aspect of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, some of his research topics include international aid to the Palestinians and Israel, the effects of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories on the Israeli economy, and the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns against Israel. He is a frequent speaker on the topic of the economy of the Israeli occupation.