Israel drafts interim deal for survivors

By · August 19, 2007

Israeli survivors of Nazi concentration camps and wartime ghettoes are to receive increased state subsidies under an interim deal forged by Ehud Olmert.

Sunday marked the deadline set by the prime minister for settling the demands of Holocaust survivors who had protested at a government plan to grant them just $20 a month in subsidies.

Under a draft deal, those survivors who were in concentration camps or ghettoes will now receive between $200 and $300 a month in addition to standard welfare payouts for the elderly.

Israeli Welfare Ministry Director General Nahum Itzkowitz, speaking on Army Radio, said the deal "could change someone’s life and give him a feeling of stability and security, in comparison with the present situation”.

But a resolution is still pending for the majority of Israel’s 250,000 survivors who were dispossessed by Nazi Germany’s onslaught but never incarcerated. Israeli officials suggested they might attempt a compromise whereby state funding for a central trust catering to the needs of Holocaust survivors would be significantly raised.