The Knesset on Monday passed an NIS 1,000,000,000 ($275 million) bill granting a substantial benefits package for Holocaust survivors and the elderly. Payments to those eligible for the financial aid will begin in April.
The bill passed its second and third readings without objection.
"This is a historic law," Minister of Welfare and Social Services Isaac Herzog said, "it offers a solution for 8,000 survivors of the death and work camps who have yet to receive any stipends from Israel or Germany.
According to Herzog, the survivors will receive a monthly stipend of NIS 1,000 ($275) in addition to their senior citizens stipend and an additional NIS 4,000 ($1,099) a year.
He said Israel's elderly – numbering about 143,000 – who currently receive only income supplement, will receive an additional monthly grant of several hundred shekels.
"Historic justice has been done for the first time since the state's inception," Herzog said. "We've eradicated the discrimination between the survivors."