Government officials clash over financial aid for Holocaust victims
Treasury, welfare officials deeply divided; ministries reluctant to get involved in 'Holocaust survivor' definition.
By Ruth SinaiTreasury and welfare officials are deeply divided on the handling of needy Holocaust survivors. Disputes at a special interministerial committee revolve around who is a Holocaust survivor, how much money should be distributed and how to finance such measures.
Officials at the Finance and Justice Ministries do not want to get involved in the definition of a Holocaust survivor.
Social services officals would like to include the 100,000 former residents of the Soviet Union living in Israel, along with the 150,000 survivors of concentration camps, ghettos and countries occupied by the Nazis and their allies who came to Israel in the 1940s and 50s.
The treasury believes the issue is socially and emotionally loaded and that the broader definition of a survivor will overburden the state by billions of shekels. Treasury officials suggested increasing budgets for organizations that help needy survivors and increasing old-age stipends for the needy elderly, without defining who is a Holocaust survivor. The treasury estimates that this will cost up to NIS 200 million.
The Social Affairs Ministry has rejected the proposal as cumbersome and insufficient, touting identical monthly stipends for all 250,000 survivors whose income is below a certain level. Ministry officials have suggested asking Germany to finance the aid in order to preserve Israel's budget structure and sovereign credit rating. The treasury agrees that the German government should finance survivors' needs, but doesn't see a practical way to demand that.
The Social Affairs Ministry stated in response: "Recently there has been a wave of pressure regarding the impending plan for needy Holocaust survivors. The plan will be balanced, provide alternatives and provide a practical and rapid solution to handling the problem."
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
Holocaust survivors are aging. What the hell are the authorities thinking of - pay the damned money!
Forget the corruption in the government. It is too disgusting to think about. Israel has just now acknowledged that it has property that belongs to survivors. After hounding the Swiss, they still have holocaust-era bank accounts that have not been turned over and, as we know, a lot of the money "for survivors" was redirected to "taking care of the Jewish people" as an aggregate survivor. Its way too upsetting. What I want to know is (a) where is the honor in being a survivor. I agree that they deserve to be taken care of, but it isn't honor, its pity. (b) MOST IMPORTANT, this whole thing smacks of russo-phobia. Do all survivors have to have gone through exactly what Eli Wiesel did? Why do we accept only one narrative for the holocaust? Israel is protecting the Polish holocaust the same way that it promotes Ashkenazi Judaism as the only legitimate form. In this way, it mythologizes the holocaust and makes Ahmadinajad that much more correct. I am truly sickened.
Germany send 2006 to Israel for then needy holocaust survivors.
What is the big deal?? A holocaust survivor is a holocaust survivor, nothing else. To broaden the term would be to dishonour the meaning. Defining who is a holocaust survivor is a must and is not difficult. Huge amounts of people suffered in the war, lost homes, lost loved ones, but not all of them were holocaust survivors - People who were targeted and persecuted just for being Jews and were made to suffer for it to the point of death. There is not much time left and this issue should be resolved quickly. It is a shame the way holocaust surviviors are being treated by money hunger goverments and lots of preferred red tape. They need the money now.
...just beg for silver and gold til the end. your own treasures are stolen from millon graves by your unholy creditsymstem -so your so called elites just wonder how to ask a country best known for its production values. unlike other people who work for their living your silly elites just look for a way to steel money from others. as you know you should feel guilty about that - you see enemies against your system all over the world in every man. that is just becuse you dont intend to be part of mankind; you think you can smartly fool anybody against anybody - while you step back and earn the profits. what ohter society can implement such a discours like "definitions"-spinning and "treasures"-stealing. that is so evil, sorry.
The treasury officials don't have a conscious. I'm not sure if they are actually human.
As long as the 'fat cats' line their pockets, such as Bibi, Hirchson, and all the other schwitzers in our crooked government, there will be no funds left for the needy. Look at their salaries, their boasting how rich they are, and then take another look at the homeless and near-homeless, seniors survivors. Shame on this country, it sure doesn't answer to what it originally stood for.
And meanwhile they are getting nothing, and their existential dilemma continues as before.....and the treasury keeps the money....
The money existed for the Holocaust survivors. It was stollen by the State of Israel and its corrupt officials. How can the State run now to Germany and blackmail it for more and more money. The survivors should be taken care of now in this minute and not wait until half of them will die. Because this is what likely will happen again. What is there to argue about? Help is needed and this is all what the officials should think about and not how to distibute the spoils among themselves. This whole business casts a shameful spot on Israel.
And so it begins.The corrupt officals arguing who gets the higher salary's.So olmert last week was lieing again when he said the survivors would be cared for.Next year the same story.Germany has already given the money but these crooks want more for themselves ,delay payments to survivors as next year will be less to pay out.Same shameful treatment.Fire the complete set and let some privete organisation handle the distribution.