Avi Simhon, chairman of the advisory forum to the finance minister, aroused a firestorm at the Sderot Conference on Social Issues on Tuesday by suggesting that the main reason for poverty in Israel was irresponsible procreation.

"The leaders of a state need to tell people that bringing a lot of children into the world is irresponsible. 'You are doing wrong by your children and your families. You are behaving irresponsibly toward your environment,'" Simhon advised. "I suggest that everybody who has a dais and a microphone says to those segments of the population, 'You are doing wrong,'" he added.

The bigger families are, the greater their probability of sliding below the poverty line, Simhon spelled out. "It is hard for the state to take care of all the large families and keep them out of poverty." These communities are growing "extremely fast," he said, and Israel is a very crowded country to begin with. "Even the Negev isn't that empty," Simhon said.

Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog rebutted that the state doesn't get involved in anybody's bedroom, but added that enforcing the ban on polygamy in the Bedouin sector was problematic.

Haredim may have seven children per family but among the Bedouin, a man may have several wives and each could have seven children, he noted.