Ngo comments on the Initial Israeli State Report on Implementing the un convention on the Rights of the Child

Moving Backwards: Why?

Our colleague, Yitzhak Kadman, from the National Council for the Child writes:

Were someone to compare the condition of children’s rights in Israel in the late 50’s and 60’s with that of other countries of the world, he could point to Israel as one of the most advanced and progressive countries in the field. However, since the 1960’s a very interesting phenomenon has occurred: in certain ways we are moving backwards, while other countries continue to develop.⁵
The “movement backward” can be seen by the widening gap between rich and poor, and the general deterioration of human rights.

Defense budget: A major priority

One of the main problems is budgeting for children’s rights. Article 4 calls for "translating the rights in the Convention into reality to the maximum extent of available resources." Since the establishment of Israel, it has been under varying degrees of security threats. Thus defense expenditures have generally composed an exceptionally high percentage of the budget; in certain years Israel’s per capita defense expenditures have been among the highest in the world.⁶ In the last twenty years, however, the defense expenditures decreased from 22% of the GDP to 10% of the GDP in 2000, while, at the same time, social services, including education, increased from 16% to 19%.⁷ The education and health budgets are relatively high. The education budget, for instance, “went up the first half of the decade and became the second-largest item in the overall budget, after defense.”⁸
It must be noted that the relative decline in the defense budget throughout the 1980’s and 90’s resulted from changing regional geo-politics, beginning with the peace agreement with Egypt in 1979 and expanding during the Oslo peace process that started in 1991. However, in light of the stagnating peace process and the new intifada, the defense budget has gone up once again.
The effects of this most significant problem – the lack of budgets to implement laws and court orders – is felt across the spectrum of children’s rights issues.⁹ In many fields, the laws are good but the budgets simply do not exist to carry them out. For example, there is a lack of space in special education and long waiting lists for certain residential institutions for at-risk children, so children sent to such institutions by the courts are not admitted in practice and sometimes sent to prison instead.
Recent budget cuts are extremely worrying and will have a very negative effect on children’s lives. Without major funding for children in all sectors, their future is in serious jeopardy. A major change in priorities is needed, including a major investment in children and youth. To evaluate if the government is spending “to the maximum extent of their available resources,” we examined the growing gap between the rich and the poor and the growing number of children living under the poverty line.
The recent deterioration of the political situation has led to calling up IDF reservists. This has taken place in April 2002 and led to changes in the national budget. According to Amnon Barzilai:

“The defense budget for 2002 will reach about NIS 40.9 billion, compared to NIS 37.3 billion in 2001, an increase of almost 10 percent. That sum represents about 20 percent of the national budget and about 8.6 percent of the GNP (an increase of 0.5 percent). The increase in the defense budget is a reflection of the closing of the diplomatic window of opportunity, the escalation in terror and the reinforcement of preparedness in the Israel Defense Forces. However, according to figures from the Defense Ministry’s budgets section, due to this budget erosion, about NIS 1.5billion is still missing from the defense budget’s basic needs (besides the NIS 2.5 billion required immediately.)

The recruitment of the reservists triggered an immediate surge in the army’s expenses. The main budget item, in addition to the payment of reserve days, is activation of the logistic infrastructure, especially in the armored corps. On the eve of the approval of the national budget, the defense minister said the national budget should be cut back for the sake of social welfare and the economy. The situation now, however, is just the opposite. It is now necessary to cut back social welfare expenses to strengthen Israel’s defense system.”¹⁰

Competing for limited financial resources

Since 1996, the beginning of an economic decline, government budgets have been cut. Children had to compete with the growing budget for the elderly. “The economic downturn has also been reflected in a change in the composition of social expenditure, an increase in the weight of expenditure for income maintenance (mainly because of a significant increase in [demand for] unemployment compensation) and a decrease in the proportion of spending for in-kind services.”¹¹

The world markets and other influences which increased the budget deficit downturn also have left their marks. Israel is “infected” by the new economic approach. Even the Labor Government, when it was in power, took the stance that there must not be a big deficit, which led to constant cuts in social services budgets. Only Late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin agreed for the first time in the eighties to cut the defense budget.
Even though a new National Health Insurance Law provides universal health coverage, in 1998, the health funds started to collect fees for visits to specialists and require participation in paying the costs of medication. Although the health budget has stayed stable, the population has increased, and in fact, more expenditure is needed to maintain previous standards.
Article 4 deals only with the issue of the State undertaking measures (such as budget allocation) to the maximum extent of its available resources, but does not relate to whether the money is efficiently or justly spent.
The issue of Arab-Israeli schools receiving fewer resources than Jewish-Israeli schools (despite the fact that there is an enormous amount of school-dropouts in that community), is dealt with under Article 2 (non-discrimination).