Israel, Holocaust survivors strike deal

The Israeli government and Holocaust survivors struck a deal Sunday on a special allowance for Israelis who lived through the Nazi genocide.

The agreement followed weeks of criticism that the government had abandoned the 240,000 survivors who live in Israel.

Sunday's deal will guarantee Israelis who survived the Nazi ghettos and concentration camps a monthly stipend of $284, according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

In addition, survivors will receive tax discounts and other benefits calculated according to their income, with the amount set aside for them slated to go up over the next few years, the statement said.

The new agreement replaced a government plan last month to offer survivors a stipend that worked out to $20 a month, a sum that drew bitter public condemnation and a protest by 500 elderly survivors and their supporters outside parliament.

"This is the first time that the state of Israel has taken this issue seriously, and will provide aid to the needy who survived the death camps and the ghettos as well as those who haven't received any aid until now," said Uri Arazi, spokesman for a consortium of survivors' organizations.

The new government plan splits the survivors into two groups: those who survived in ghettos and camps, and those who became refugees but did not come under direct Nazi rule. The refugees, who number around 85,000, are not included in the new arrangement.

While pleased with the deal, representatives of the survivors said they would not be satisfied until a solution is found for the refugees.

"The problem has still not been solved, and there are still some painful issues open," Zev Factor, chairman of the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, told Channel 2 TV.

Six decades after World War II and the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators, many Israeli survivors, now elderly, have complained that Israel does not do enough to support them and that they lack money for basic necessities.

Existing Holocaust survivor benefits are calculated by complex regulations depending on country of origin, where claimants were during the war, when they arrived in Israel, whether they received German government reparations and other criteria. The benefits come on top of state pensions and government health care available to all elderly Israelis.