Economists warn of Israeli financial meltdown

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
3 Mar 2023 15:24
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Experts are warning that Netanyahu's actions will lead to long-term damage to economic growth and Israelis’ standard of living.

Israeli police deploy horses and stun grenades to disperse settlers blocking a main road in Tel Aviv, March 1, 2023 (AP)

Israeli economists issued a warning that they are at the crack of a financial meltdown and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition could have grave implications for the economy.

“Since we published our first petition, there are many growing indications that the damage to the economy could manifest itself more powerfully and faster than we expected,” they warned on Thursday.

“Even if the markets eventually stabilize in the short term, experience from other countries where judicial and financial institutions were harmed, and research from recent decades shows that we can expect long-term damage to economic growth and Israelis’ standard of living,” the experts alerted.

Experts still think that it is not too late to act on the crisis.

The Israeli shekel's value has dropped to a three-year low against the dollar, making companies pull their money from Israeli accounts.

Protests took place in the streets of "Tel Aviv" over the weekend with tens of thousands of settlers gathered in other cities against the governing coalition's planned legal reform.

Signatories of the warning are leftist Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman and former two-term Bank of "Israel" governor Jacob Frenkel. Economists warned that the radical measures could lead to reduced investments in "Israel's" tech industry.

After weeks of protests in "Israel", which went violent, the settlers launched a "disruption day".

As soon as the protests began, police arrived on horseback and hurled stun grenades, and used water cannons against the protesters. Videos spiraled on social media of a police officer pinning down a protester with his knee on the man's neck alongside several others which portray police brutality.

Critics said that Netanyahu has a conflict of interest in targeting judges while he stands on trial for corruption charges.

The former head of the Israeli military intelligence division Amos Yadlin said in an interview with Israeli Channel 12: “Israel is heading to a bad place.”