Israelis seek to erase 'mark of disgrace' left by poverty

[bemildred]

Chani has painted flowers on the damp walls of the tiny room shared by her five children, but the effort has done little to brighten up the family's dark, cramped basement flat in one of Jerusalem's ultra-orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods. It is a cold day, but she can only afford to turn on the flat's sole electrical heater at night; the lights will be switched off as soon as her visitors leave.

The 37-year old and her husband have no steady work, and government allowances for their children have shrivelled to only 1,100 shekels ($307, €207 £156) a month. A charity provides food parcels, blankets and clothes. Chani gets some chicken every week for the Sabbath, and twice a year, on the holidays of Passover and Sukkot, the family receives meat as a special treat.

"The children are constantly making requests, even for normal things. They cannot understand why their parents can't afford them," she says.

Chani and her family are among more than a million Israelis who live in the shadow of the country's impressive high-tech boom. The Israeli economy is in its fifth year of rapid growth, fuelled by rising foreign investment, strong domestic consumption and surging exports. Gross domestic product per head is fast closing in on the European Union average.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/381a0350-d51f-11dc-9af1-0000779fd2ac.html

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Just don't look over the f'ing wall at the folks in the ghetto. nt.