Israeli minister denies wanting to change Holocaust reparations deal

Nov 11, 2007, 11:02 GMT

Jerusalem - An Israeli minister who said Holocaust survivors in Israel need more money did not mean that the 1952 agreement with Germany granting reparations needed to be reopened or re-examined, his spokeswoman said Sunday.

Elle Baror told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa that Pensions Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan did not want to tamper with the Luxembourg Agreement, but rather wanted teams from Israel and Germany to meet in order to discuss ways of finding money to cover expenses which were not taken into account when the original deals were signed.

These expenses include the high cost of the last stage of life in the modern era, and a life expectancy at least 10 years longer compared to that of the 1950s, when the original reparations agreements were signed, she said.

In addition, Israel has absorbed 'hundreds of thousands' of Holocaust survivors from the former Soviet Union who were not accounted for in the original reparations agreement, Baror said.

Baror said that Eitan believed that since Germany bore prime responsibility for the Holocaust, it should help Israel find the funds to meet these new expenses, which are only for survivors and not for their descendents.

The minister has proposed that teams from Israel and Germany meet to determine how much money is needed, and how it should be raised.

Eiutan has asked for a meeting with German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck when he visits Israel in two weeks time.

The Luxembourg Agreement stipulated that Germany would give Israel 833 million dollars in reparations, and Israel would look after the survivors, who would not be permitted to sue Germany directly.

But Eitan says that in the 50 years between 1954 and 2004, the Israeli government had spent some 3.5 billion dollars on the survivors, more than four times the sum transferred by Germany.

Many Holocaust survivors and refugees in Israel are said to live below the poverty line, either because as Jews who survived the Holocaust in countries not under Nazi occupation they were not eligible for repatriation, because they have no proper pensions, or because they refused or failed to apply for reparations.