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The Ben-Gurion airport, the main point of entrance to Israel, is halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. A four-lane wide road, paved with refinement, leads newcomers in any direction they want to go. Heading east, one arrives at the religious center of the planet. Heading west takes you to a Mediterranean and cosmopolitan city.
Mikhail Frunze/Opera Mundi
Everyday life by the beach in Tel Aviv. City's economy grew, in the last decade, at an average rate of 3,4% a year
Almost ten years after the wave of attacks carried out by suicide bombers, the environment at the main Jewish city in the world feels nothing like one of the longest and most tense post-war conflicts ever. Or like a confessional State, in which religion plays a keyhole in the identity of the people and the regulation of the private life.
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New buildings, several of them high-end luxury, spike out of the ground in Tel Aviv. Most of them are meant for foreigners, especially wealthy Jews who are looking for their little piece of the Promised Land, as long as it´s facing the sea. Wooded boulevards cut through the busy avenues, and serve as a walkway to observe the almost ubiquitous Bauhaus architectural style. There’s white everywhere. Fancy and well-decorated restaurants appear to always be crowded.
Ladies in short dresses or shorts, boys in jeans or shorts, enjoying the warm and dry weather of the spring, flood the downtown streets. It’s rare to see a rabbi, or even someone wearing a kippah. They are spotted in some historical places, such as the street market or the Arabic city of Jaffa, incorporated as a district after 1948. But Tel Aviv, with its metropolitan area housing more than 3 million inhabitants, exhales a breath of modernity.
Mikhail Frunze/Opera Mundi
Young israeli soldier in Tel Aviv, the most cosmopolitan city in Israel, lnown for its skyscrapers and boulevards
The city is the locomotive of an economy that over the last decade has grown at an average rate of 3.4% per year, despite the international crisis that rocked the United States and Europe since 2008. Israel began to receive increasing direct investments in its industrial plants.
The main companies that are part of this productive boom are high-tech companies, focused on information technology, military equipment and pharmaceuticals. The so-called hi-tech companies account for nearly 50% of the country's exports. Installed mainly in the peripheral belt of Tel Aviv, they became the mecca of the university graduates that dream of making their nest egg.
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The appeal of the economic strength was added to the reinforcement of the security conditions, when the Palestinian occupied territories were physically isolated. The external accounts are also benefiting from funds for the Palestinian Authority since they must pass through the Israeli Central Bank, where dollars and euros are converted into Shekels. The reserves grew rapidly, appreciating the domestic currency and creating opportunities for local entrepreneurs to expand their activities abroad.
Social costs
This dynamism, however, had heavy social costs. Besides the fact that the expenses with the armed forces represent about 30% of the national budget, they also overload imports, causing negative balances in the commercial balance. Even with the U.S. bearing 20% of the security spending, with non-repayable grants (approximately $3.5 billion annually), Israel will only get out of the red if it attracts new capital.
Mikhail Frunze/Opera Mundi
Huge subsidies and tax exemptions are granted, for this purpose, to the business world. In contrast, to tackle the internal deficit, there’s a strong reduction in the funds allocated to social programs and public services, which gets worse by the deregulation of labor rights. The economy is growing, but the wealth is concentrated and poverty expands.
The number of people whose income is less than 40% of the average wage has risen since 2003, from 7.8 to 12.1%. Those earling below 50% of the average wage has increased from 15 to 19.8%, and amount below the 60% mark has gone from of 23.3 to 26.8%. The data comes from OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). Fifteen years ago, 16% of Israelis were living below the poverty line, according to a report from the National Insurance Institute, a government agency. Currently, 23.9% of the citizens live on less than $27 a day, despite the unemployment rate being 6.3%.
The wave of protests that swept across Tel Aviv and other cities in 2011 was a response to this situation. More than 500,000 people took part in the protests, and their main claim was the reduction of rents and housing prices. The average income of Israelis hardly supports housing costs in a market that is facing the top of the pyramid.
Ethnic wall
The social wall keeps getting taller, but still cannot compete with the ethnic wall. Israeli Arabs account for around 22% of the national population of 7.5 million. The average salary among this group of $1,500 per month is 32% lower than the Jewish workers’ salary. Over 53% of Palestinian families live in poverty, and amongst them unemployment goes up to 10%. 36 out of the 40 Israeli cities with the highest number of residents without jobs have Arab majority.
In the occupied territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, figures are even more severe, although statistics are inaccurate or contradictory. The problem gets worse, however, because these people do not even have civil and voting rights. These areas were isolated by a system of walls and fences, under the excuse of stopping the wave of attacks against Israel.
Wikicommons
West Bank Wall, or “apartheid wall” to the Palestinians, built by Israel for security reasons
Apparently this goal was achieved, despite the missiles that continue to be launched from Gaza defying the country's security. But the economic and social cost to the Palestinians is overwhelming. They can no longer seek jobs in the official boundaries of the Zionist state. Their mobility is severely restricted. Property and plantations losses are significant.
This scenario has established a wall between Israel and the international community. The United Nations considers illegal both the occupation of these territories and the system of land segregation. Recent resolutions also condemned the process of Jewish colonization in these areas, which should belong to the Palestinian state. West Bank settlements are officially encouraged, receive subsidies and have their guard guaranteed by the army, besides being encapsulated by the separation wall.
Some leftist intellectuals and Zionist leaders began to declare in recent years that Israel was dangerously moving towards a model inspired by the apartheid in South Africa, due to the strategy with regards to the Palestinian issue. Those who are more right winged, that represent the current government, reject the comparison and say that the measures only respond to the needs of fighting terror.
Critics of this point of view argue that the solution to peace is not in the building of walls, but in the negotiation of a permanent agreement for the existence of a viable and independent Palestinian state. The most relevant leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speak in favor of this output. But there are many doubts whether some of the players are not betting on turning what´s temporary in an eternal situation.
The truth is that Israel reaches 65 years of its independence, celebrated this May 14, as a nation that is strong and solid nation, but also pierced with contradictions. It displays economic vitality and technological power. However, there are also conflicts of a system that produces inequality, ethnic discrimination and colonial temptation.
To enable the reader to know a little more about this country and its dilemmas, Opera Mundi launches today a special report on Israel.
Translation: Kelly Cristina Spinelli