Last update - 00:00 11/04/2007
Holocaust survivors tell Knesset they have been 'trampled' by treasury
By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent
Holocaust survivors told the Knesset on Tuesday they have been "humiliated and trampled" during a special hearing by the Knesset lobby for Holocaust survivors on what they called their poor treatment by the treasury.
During the tumultuous hearing, the survivors complained to the lobby members that Finance Ministry officials processing their claims displayed obtuseness and cynicism.
They also accused the treasury of deliberate foot-dragging. During the hearing, some of the distraught survivors lashed out at the Finance Ministry representative, accusing her of complicity in the alleged maltreatment. Others said they would not attend ceremonies commemorating Holocaust victims in protest of "Israel's denial of its Holocaust survivors."
The survivors seeking disability allowances must prove their condition to a medical committee before they are awarded the stipend. They are not required to prove they are disabled, but rather that their disability stems from Nazi persecution. The only available avenue of appeal is through the court system.
The monthly stipend dispensed to the 40,000 survivors deemed eligible is quite meager: NIS 1,040. In contrast, Germany pays double that figure to its disabled victims, who are not required to prove their injuries are a direct result of persecution.
Tova Pedens, who had been refused a stipend by the treasury-commissioned medical committee, told the lobby that treasury employees advised her to pretend she was insane to improve her chances.
Another survivor, Abraham Berkowitz, who immigrated to Israel from Romania, said that when he told the committee that he was suffering from dental problems, they told him he would "receive money only for teeth he lost in the Holocaust." He then added that treasury workers told him they thought the medical committee was actually too lenient on the survivors.
Another survivor, Rachel Biyale, accused the treasury of submitting inflated cost estimates for bills aimed at helping survivors. "Hannah Arendt wrote of Adolf Eichmann's Banality of Evil. The treasury adopts a banality of deception," she said.
Many survivors noted Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson's failure to abide by his promise to help them in their daily struggle against poverty. MK Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party), who attended the hearing, said the treasury needed to be relieved of the duty of treating survivors, "because its people have lost sight of the fact that they are dealing with human beings."
Lobby chair MK Colette Avital noted with outrage that the head of the Finance Ministry department responsible for the treatment of survivors, Rafi Pinto, was not there, and had instead sent an aide to the hearing.
His representative told the lobby that the claims of the survivors stemmed from their unfamiliarity with the jurisdiction and the degree of discretion available to the medical committee.