Last update - 00:00 08/08/2007
PM vows to settle Holocaust survivor aid issue in 10 days
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed Wednesday to settle the issue of financial assistance for Holocaust survivors within 10 days.
Olmert instructed his appointed team to meet with survivors' representatives on a daily basis to reach a solution by time he met with them on August 19.
The survivors' representatives met Wednesday with the prime minister at his Jerusalem office in an effort to resolve a dispute sparked by an announcement Olmert made last week. Olmert had stated that the state would provide survivors with a meager NIS 83 monthly stipend.
"There is no doubt that the most troublesome problem now is the thousands of survivors who were in concentration camps and who have not been taken care of until today," Olmert said.
He said the problem of needy survivors had to be addressed first.
Olmert promised to assist the survivors' groups to obtain financial aid that would allow them to represent survivors' in dignity.
The meeting opened with a survey by Noah Flug, a Holocaust survivor and chairman of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors, about the condition of Holocaust survivors in Israel.
Flug said he had reservations about the survivors' protest on Sunday, which was too harsh in his opinion. He said he had been furious to see the poster saying "the Holocaust is still here."
The finance, social affairs and pensioners' ministers, senior government officials and MK Colette Avital attended the debate.