ANALYSIS: You Get What You Pay For, Israel (Part of the 16 Day Campaign)

ISRAEL

Calculations

Israel's military expenditures are only 6.9% of its GDP because of heavy U.S. financing. In August 2007, the United States and Israel signed an agreement to increase military funding to Israel to $30 billion over the next decade. Israel's 2009 total (including U.S. aid) came to over $14 billion dollars. The following calculations were done with the $30 billion figure; halving them will provide you information based on Israel's annual spending, which includes U.S. aid. Over 6,000 years of funding for shelters for battered women

• Over 260,000 years of funding for rape crisis intervention centers
• Over 65,000 years of funding for assistance to victims of sexual abuse
• Over 17,500 years of funding for treatment programs for victims of sexual abuse
• Cover nearly all Social Service expenditures for 10 years
• Cover 6.8 annual budgets for the Ministry of Health
• Over 70 percent of persons employed in health services are women
• Cover 3.3 annual budgets for the Ministry of Education
• Cover 159 annual budgets for Day Care Centers and Family Day Care
• Pay 29,675,000 median women's wages (which remain two-thirds of the median wage)

Across the Board Gender Bias

Increased military expenditures at the expense of the public sector are biased in creating socio-economic insecurity for women employees. Israel's post-2009 center-right government coalition scrapped Defense budget rollbacks, which was offset by cutting the budgets of civilian ministries across the board. Barbara Swirski, of Israel Women's Budget Forum, writes in her gender analysis of the national budget proposal for 2009/2010 that the term "across-the-board" is not as gender-neutral as it appears: 2/3 of public service employees are women, and almost 50% of women are employed by the government, either directly or indirectly. Quite simply, cutting the public sector to compensate for increased defense spending makes women more vulnerable.

Sources and Further Reading

End the Occupation. “Memorandum of Understanding.” Link.

Amnesty International. March 31, 2005. “Women Carry the Burden of Conflict, Occupation and Patrichary.” Link.

Uta Klein. October 1999. “The contribution of the military and military discourse to the construction of masculinity in society.” EuroWRC. Link.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Military Expenditure Database. Link.

Barbara Swirski. July 2009. “Through a Gender Lens: Looking at the National Budget Proposal and the Budget Arrangements Law for Fiscal Years 2009/2010.” Adva Center. Link.

Marina Triner. February 2009. “Gender Equity in Civil-Military Relations in Israel.” Prospect Journal of International Affairs at UCSD. Link.

Women's Sphere. October 26, 2010. “There is a Partner in Peace” – Women Key to Peace in Israel and Palestine.” Link.

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