MK Meir Porush (UTJ) said Sunday that if Israel had used billions of shekels to help poor families and to return child budgets to large families instead of using the money to help non-Jewish immigrants, poverty would be much less severe today. Instead, Porush said, there are political sources interested in “balancing” the large number of children born to hareidi-religious families by bringing in more secular residents.

Porush’s words came in response to a recent report showing that poverty in Israel increased for seven years in a row, and was particularly severe among children. In light of the report, Porush criticized the Welfare Ministry’s decision to grant social services to the children of foreign workers, saying, “what about the words of our sages, ‘The poor of your own city take precedence?’”