Speaking at a Knesset session on the topic of poverty, Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin said Tuesday that helping poor families enter the workplace was no longer a guarantee that they would be able to rise out of poverty, as it was in the past – because half the families under the poverty line were working families. The best way to help poor families today, he said, was to lower their financial burden – and certainly not increase it, through extra charges for water and electricity, as the government is planning.

The Knesset was marking the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, dedicated to decreasing the numbers of poor people around the world.