Once again we are subject to an election system. And once again, like mushrooms after the rain, representatives from the entire political spectrum come to visit us, and everyone chants the same familiar refrain: we will take care of the North. But in the field, the situation is far from that. Israel’s governments for generations, from the right and the left, abandoned the north and essentially created a geographical, social and economic periphery even after more than 70 years in one of the smallest countries in the world in terms of area.
As part of our activity in the administration of the council in Meshgav, we regularly come across explanations according to which we are budgeted according to our relative size and therefore the budget is low. This is a complete absurdity. Because of the budgeting that is based on the number of children, students or residents, the actual budget is very low and we suffer from it. To correct the distortion, the budgeting mechanisms must include a significant relative advantage in favor of the periphery and the north in order to create a climate that will allow the growth of the region.
Government economic policy can sometimes be liked or disliked, and still understand the logic and priorities behind it. The state has to choose what is more important to its method, and in a normal setting of goals it is a legitimate process even if the result is not to everyone’s liking. However, what is difficult to understand is an economic policy from which everyone loses. And this is exactly what is happening as a result of the state’s attitude towards the North.
Many economic studies point to the connection between the distribution of opportunities in an efficient manner, and the exploitation of the growth potential of the economy. The simplest example is education; If only a few have access to technological education, there will be a shortage of working hands in the high-tech industry. Those few will probably reach a very high income, but the entire economy will lose jobs, GDP, growth, standard of living and investment in the next generation.
And what happens when the economic policy neglects an entire geographical district? What happens when hundreds of thousands or millions cannot exhaust their potential contribution to the economy, because of a deliberate or negligent policy of discrimination in access to education, transportation, medicine, fast communication, culture? It is difficult to estimate the lost economic output and the damage to the economy. If you look at the numbers, it is a drama. Huge damage to the entire economy. And this can no longer be understood in any way.
The average salary in the north is 28% lower than in the center
The dry figures for the northern district, where almost one and a half million people live, do not bode well for those who care about Israel’s economic future. The average salary for an employee in the North District, which stands at NIS 7,809, is the lowest compared to all the other districts in the country – 28% lower than the average salary in the central region.
This means that 850 thousand women and men, who make up the labor force in the northern district, each produce 3,000 shekels less in salary per month. The loss to the economy: NIS 30 billion in wages per year. 30 billion shekels that could have gone to consumption, investments, education, culture, taxes and more. Who loses that money and all the growth that could have followed? Only northerners? It is clear to anyone with eyes in his head that the answer is – the entire economy. each and every one of us.
The wage gaps are not random, and assuming that the relationship between them and the education data is not in doubt, the future holds no good surprises. The figures for the Mitzvah exams in the North and South districts in mathematics and English subjects, both in the 5th and 8th grades, are lower than the national average. The rate of those eligible for a matriculation certificate in 2015, according to the LBS data, was only 73.7%. After the Jerusalem district, which includes a large ultra-Orthodox population that does not take matriculation exams, this is the lowest eligibility rate in the country.
One of the most influential indicators on the economic independence of the household and its standard of living is the participation rate of women in the workforce. The reason is, of course, the difference between one breadwinner per household and two breadwinners per household. As of 2018, the largest gap between the employment rates of men and women is found in the Northern District: 65.9% versus 44.7% respectively. In other words: the proportion of women working in the north is one third lower than the proportion of men. And worse: the gap between women and men is closing in the north the slowest in Israel.
There are no shortage of plans to improve the situation. At the beginning of 2017, the government decided to launch the “North Plan”, at a cost of tens of billions of shekels. About NIS 20 billion was supposed to be invested in moving IDF camps to the north, moving government companies of a technological nature to the north, moving a volcanic institute, upgrading and establishing industrial areas, and establishing an international airport in Ramat David.
How far have these projects progressed? The grim answer is known to everyone. 12 billion shekels were supposed to be invested in transportation infrastructure. billion in health. Where are these investments? At the beginning of 2018, the finance committee sharply criticized the government due to the pace of implementation of the plan, a year after its approval. In less washed words, almost nothing is done. For dessert, at the beginning of the year, the grants for physician internships in the periphery were canceled. Why? who knows.
A Time.news of neglect – the policy is deliberate and long-standing
Pity the hands that work for the high-tech industry. Tens of thousands of them live in the north, and are not accessible to the industry that craves workers because of the distance, the poor transportation, the high-speed internet infrastructures that have been lagging behind for years. Who loses from all of these, the North?
It’s a shame about the huge concentration of academics from the Arab sector, which does not take advantage of its income potential in terms of employment and income, because of the infrastructure problems of the northern district, and because of the bad wind blowing from Jerusalem. Who is hurt by all this, the North?
Those who think that these hard data are a result of fate, a product of geographical circumstances and the dispersion of the population – are wrong. These figures are the result of a long-standing, deliberate policy of neglecting the northern district as part of the neglect of the entire periphery. The policy makers in the center of the country and in Jerusalem may think that they are harming only the residents of the periphery – one and a half million people in the case of our district – but in reality they are harming the entire Israeli economy, today and in the future.
We have cut back on lip service and courtesy visits that result in empty photos on social networks. Ended up being the permanent setting of election campaigns. We must demand from every party member who comes to visit home circles in the north to present a clear plan with goals and indicators that will enable the development of the entire north and Magev as a part of it. Politicians who do not meet this minimum standard – it is a shame that they will make the long way to the district that is only remembered when necessary.
Prof. Assaf Avrahami is the CEO of the Hasshab company, a visiting professor at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technion, a member of the Executive Committee of the Tender for Citizen Empowerment and a member of the management of the Meshgav Regional Council