Survivor Noah Flug
Photo: Sasson Tiram
After Holocaust survivor organizations rejected the government's allowance plan proposal
last week as "an insulting offer", thousands are expected to demonstrate Sunday morning for the fair treatment of Holocaust survivors and will demand more adequate aid packages.
Survivor organizations are demanding that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
meet with them for direct negotiations, in order to find a suitable solution for those elderly Holocaust survivors who cannot live respectably on the minimal allowances they currently receive.
The "March of the Living" will start opposite the Knesset in Jerusalem and will reach the Prime Minister's Office.
'Insulting Offer'
Yael Branovsky
Heads of Israel’s Holocaust survivor organizations hold emergency meeting following Olmert’s proposal to allocate NIS 130 million in financial assistance in 2008; ‘it seems as though the government considers us a burden and is waiting for the biological solution,’ survivor says
Last Thursday representatives of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors met with Prime Minister's Office Director General Ra'anan Dinur for over two hours in attempt to reach a solution. At the end of the meeting, Noah Flug, chairman of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors, said: "As far as we are concerned, the fight is still on.”
The Prime Minister's Office told Ynet Saturday night that by Sunday morning, they expected to announce the date of Olmert's slated meeting with the survivor representatives. In addition, a special committee, made up of members of the Welfare, Finance and Health Ministries, would meet Sunday to draft another offer replacing the previous one, which was rejected.
Aside from the Holocaust survivors organizations, who daily battle for the stipends, many other social organizations have joined the cause and will attend Sunday's demonstrations.
Youth groups, university student organizations, the Yadid foundation and the Pensioners' Union, among many others, plan to show their support at the march.
The National Council of Pupils and Youths, which represents all of Israel's youth, announced that it stood behind the Holocaust survivors and their justified struggle.
"We have no intention of sitting on the sidelines," said council chairman Nir Katraro. "Their struggle is our struggle."
A number of Knesset members will also take part in the demonstration.
Yael Branovsky, Moran Zelikovich and Amnon Meranda contributed to the report