Herzog
Photo: Yaron Brener
Herzog: Gov't holding back plan to help survivors
Social affairs minister accuses Finance Ministry of delaying implementation of plan to aid Holocaust survivors
"The Finance Ministry is preventing the implementation of the plan to support Holocaust survivors," Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog said Monday.
Speaking at a meeting of the Knesset's Committee for Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs, Herzog said, "Unfortunately, up until now our plan has not been met with a response by the Finance Ministry, which refuses to accept the proposal, even after it has been cut."
Herzog added that he had urged the prime minister to convene an urgent cabinet meeting on the issue, but had so far not received an answer.
Several Holocaust survivors attended the debate and spoke about their day-to-day hardship. Rachel Biala, a survivor from the Kaunas ghetto, slammed the MKs for allowing the situation to continue. "It's unacceptable that the Finance bureaucrats control the MKs, the parliament and the government," she said.
Ze'ev Factor and Dubi Arbel, heads of the fund for the survivors' welfare, said that the survivors were once again being pushed to the corner by the government and the prime minister, "who only three months ago said that it was the country's moral obligation to help them."
