Today marks the International Day of Persons With Disabilities, the UN holiday established in 1992 to raise awareness of disabled people around the world and the struggle for disability rights. To commemorate the day, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics released a new report this week on Israel’s disabled adult population of nearly 1 million individuals, revealing a troubling economic reality and limited trust in government institutions.
According to the data, 983,000 Israelis above age 20 are living with disabilities, not including those living in full-time care facilities. Israelis with disabilities are twice as likely as nondisabled Israelis to not earn enough money to cover basic household expenses. Nearly one in two disabled Israelis finishes the month in the red, compared to one in four nondisabled Israelis. Around one in six disabled Israelis has foregone medical treatment because of the cost and around one in eight has foregone purchasing medicine because of the cost. That’s compared to less than one in 30 nondisabled Israelis.
Only 24% of disabled Israelis between the ages of 25 and 64 have a degree, compared to 42% of the general population. Whereas 82% of people without disabilities in that age range are in the workforce, only 53% of disabled Israelis are.
For disabled people who do work, pay is often low. Disabled Israelis are twice as likely than nondisabled Israelis to bring home less than 5,000 shekels ($1,376) each month, with about one in five disabled workers earning less than that amount.
Disabled people are also significantly more likely to suffer from mental health troubles than their nondisabled peers. Around one in six adults with disabilities reported often feeling lonely, compared to just one in thirty in the nondisabled population. Disabled Israelis were also four times more likely to report feeling depressed often or always than the nondisabled. More than one in four disabled Israelis described their mental health as generally poor, compared to just 3.5% of nondisabled Israelis.
Although Israel’s disabled population is clearly suffering, disabled people don’t have much faith in the state to address their problems. Only 16% of adults with disabilities reported feeling positively about the Knesset’s functioning, and only around half reported feeling the same about the functioning of their local municipality. One point of light in the survey was Israel’s medical system: about two in three disabled Israelis reported feeling positively about the functioning of the medical system.
This article was translated from Hebrew by Leah Schwartz.
