Middle East News
For first time Israel to pay monthly stipend to Holocaust survivors
Jul 30, 2007, 13:27 GMT
Jerusalem - Responding to growing criticism that it was neglecting Holocaust survivors, Israel's government decided Monday to award monthly stipends to those of its citizens who had survived the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
Holocaust survivors over age 70 are due to gradually receive a monthly supplement of 520 Israeli shekels (some 120 US dollars or about 90 euros) by 2011, a government statement said.
The state will pay out 120 million shekels in 2008, 240 million in 2009 and up to 300 million starting 2011.
Sixty-two years since the end of World War II, some 120,000 Holocaust survivors aged 70 and older remain in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier this year established a steering committee to look into their well-being and living conditions, amid growing critical reports in the Israeli media that many of them had fallen under the poverty line.
One reason for this, critics say, is that not all compensation paid by Germany has reached them. In other cases, some survivors refused to accept the money, or were too old and too traumatized by their experiences to apply for it.
'We are correcting a 60-year-old blight,' the government statement quoted Olmert as saying.
'Holocaust survivors living in Israel are entitled to live respectably without reaching a situation in which it is beyond their means to enjoy a hot meal. The neglect of successive governments will not continue.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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rightJul 30th, 2007 - 18:27:15
120dollars a month is really going to make up for what they went through---not enough for 1 weeks grocery
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