Subscribe to Print Edition | Wed., January 23, 2008 Shvat 16, 5768 | | Israel Time: 16:49 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Last update - 05:58 23/01/2008 Claims Conference won't handle Holocaust survivor payments By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent Tags: Finance Ministry  Payments to Holocaust survivors will be made by the Finance Ministry and not through the Claims Conference, as originally proposed. Meanwhile, in recent days, payments were made to a group of approximately 200 survivors, and the transfer of funds to 2,000 more survivors was approved by the government on Sunday. The implementation of the agreement between the government and survivors groups, signed last November, was delayed because of a disagreement over the way payments would be made to the more than 8,000 survivors who never received stipends. Advertisement The Treasury's earlier decision to utilize the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, the international organization that transfers compensation from Germany to survivors throughout the world, encountered public criticism because the Claims Conference is not an institution that can be supervised by the government of Israel. In the end, it was decided that the payments would be handled by the office for the rehabilitation of the handicapped at the treasury, which has been responsible for assisting Holocaust survivors over the past five decades. The Claims Conference will assist in the location of survivors entitled to payments and will make initial contact with them. The 200 or so survivors who were included in the lists of those eligible for stipends received their first payment last week, and next week letters will be sent out to about 9,000 other survivors who may be included in the program. The Prime Minister's Office has promised that the first payments to all survivors entitled to them will go out by the end of February. Earlier this month, NIS 7 million was deposited in a welfare fund for the survivors, a first payment of a total of NIS 100 million that is meant to pay medical and rehabilitation expenses. On Sunday the cabinet approved legislation that would anchor the transfer of payments in law, and also appointed retired Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner to head a public commission of inquiry that is to examine the way Holocaust survivors have been treated by the authorities over the decades. More Jewish World news and features Bookmark to del.icio.us   L.A.-bound The Israeli film "Beaufort" has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Virtual trees The JNF takes tree-planting online for Tu B'Shvat during the shmita year.   1.   wow, 200 survivors get money ... 02:55  |  Leona 23/01/08   2.   HUMMMMMM........... 10:50  |  Robert 23/01/08

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