The 400 richest Americans have the same amount of wealth as the bottom 50% of the American population. But many people probably don't know that the 2nd most unequal "rich" country is Israel, whose own oligarchs own a significant slice of the Israeli economy.
Today, about 20 Israeli families control a disproportionate amount of the Israeli economy. The families, whose holdings span the gamut of the Israeli economy, lay claim to about half the Israeli stock market and own one in four Israeli firms, according to the Financial Times. In 2010, an Israeli parliamentary report found that 10 business groups, most of them owned by wealthy families, control 30 percent of the market value of public companies. The families have holdings in real estate, financial services, supermarkets, the airline industry, telecommunications and more.
Yitzhak Tshuva owns Delek Group, one of Israel’s biggest companies. It has investments in energy, infrastructure, insurance and financial companies. Tshuva is also a chairman at the El-Ad Group, a major real estate company. Shari Arison is the owner of Bank Hapoalim, but also is involved in real estate and water. Nochi Dankner, whose net worth is $1 billion, according to Forbes. For many years, he was the chairman of the IDB Group, which has stakes in the insurance, biotech and finance industries. IDB controls a number of different companies: Super-Sol, the country’s largest supermarket chain; Golf and Co., a big fashion and homeware chain; Cellcom, Israel’s largest mobile phone company; Netvision, an Internet provider; the travel agency Diesenhaus; and Nesher, Israel’s only cement producer. He’s under investigation for securities fraud. IDB Group is in debt to the tune of $514 million.
About 21 percent of Israelis live in poverty, the highest among developed countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. At the bottom of Israel’s social system lie African migrants, fleeing persecution only to arrive in Israel where many can't legally work. Instead, African migrants are rounded up and put in detention. The Bedouin Arab citizens of Israel, who lived in unrecognized villages unconnected to water and electricity systems, come next. Palestinian citizens of Israel who do live in villages and cities connected to the grid don’t fare much better. They are beset by poverty and unemployment in a country whose very definition as a Jewish state excludes them. The Mizrahim (Jews with roots in the Arab world), they too are not fully integrated into Israel’s power structure.
In 2011, the average monthly salary of Ashkenazi Jews was 33% above the average, whereas the monthly salary for urban Palestinian citizens was the exact opposite: 33% below the average. Mizrahi Jews had a monthly salary 7% above the average. Palestinian citizens' poverty rate is also strikingly high: nearly 54%. Ultra-Orthodox Jews—who don't work and are fully subsidized by the state as they study Torah—have a similar poverty rate.
“No country spends more on security and the military as a proportion of their budget,” said Shir Hever, the author of The Political Economy of Israel's Occupation: Repression Beyond Exploitation. “And whatever remains to try to address the social problems in Israel is really a paltry sum.”
Taken from here
Today, about 20 Israeli families control a disproportionate amount of the Israeli economy. The families, whose holdings span the gamut of the Israeli economy, lay claim to about half the Israeli stock market and own one in four Israeli firms, according to the Financial Times. In 2010, an Israeli parliamentary report found that 10 business groups, most of them owned by wealthy families, control 30 percent of the market value of public companies. The families have holdings in real estate, financial services, supermarkets, the airline industry, telecommunications and more.
Yitzhak Tshuva owns Delek Group, one of Israel’s biggest companies. It has investments in energy, infrastructure, insurance and financial companies. Tshuva is also a chairman at the El-Ad Group, a major real estate company. Shari Arison is the owner of Bank Hapoalim, but also is involved in real estate and water. Nochi Dankner, whose net worth is $1 billion, according to Forbes. For many years, he was the chairman of the IDB Group, which has stakes in the insurance, biotech and finance industries. IDB controls a number of different companies: Super-Sol, the country’s largest supermarket chain; Golf and Co., a big fashion and homeware chain; Cellcom, Israel’s largest mobile phone company; Netvision, an Internet provider; the travel agency Diesenhaus; and Nesher, Israel’s only cement producer. He’s under investigation for securities fraud. IDB Group is in debt to the tune of $514 million.
About 21 percent of Israelis live in poverty, the highest among developed countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. At the bottom of Israel’s social system lie African migrants, fleeing persecution only to arrive in Israel where many can't legally work. Instead, African migrants are rounded up and put in detention. The Bedouin Arab citizens of Israel, who lived in unrecognized villages unconnected to water and electricity systems, come next. Palestinian citizens of Israel who do live in villages and cities connected to the grid don’t fare much better. They are beset by poverty and unemployment in a country whose very definition as a Jewish state excludes them. The Mizrahim (Jews with roots in the Arab world), they too are not fully integrated into Israel’s power structure.
In 2011, the average monthly salary of Ashkenazi Jews was 33% above the average, whereas the monthly salary for urban Palestinian citizens was the exact opposite: 33% below the average. Mizrahi Jews had a monthly salary 7% above the average. Palestinian citizens' poverty rate is also strikingly high: nearly 54%. Ultra-Orthodox Jews—who don't work and are fully subsidized by the state as they study Torah—have a similar poverty rate.
“No country spends more on security and the military as a proportion of their budget,” said Shir Hever, the author of The Political Economy of Israel's Occupation: Repression Beyond Exploitation. “And whatever remains to try to address the social problems in Israel is really a paltry sum.”
Taken from here
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