Yesh Atid commits to raise Shoah survivors’ budget
03/17/2013 19:46
Fubds earmarked in coalition deal to serve thousands of survivors; allow some 6000 to continue receiving nursing aid.
Jewish men looking at Holocaust exhibit in Yad Vashem, January 27, 2013. Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post
According to the coalition deal signed by Yesh Atid on Friday, the party has
committed to increasing the budget for Holocaust survivors’ services this year
to NIS 110 million, about half of which will be allocated to nursing care
offered by the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in
Israel.
The agreement came after Yesh Atid MK Yifat Kariv, along with MKs
from other parties, held an emergency meeting two weeks ago to discuss the
issue. The foundation had announced at the end of January that it would have to
cut three of the nine hours a week of nursing care that it provides to disabled
survivors by March 1.
“The State of Israel will not abandon Holocaust
survivors on my watch,” Kariv said at the event. “Just a month ago I was sworn
in as a Knesset member and I vowed that Israel will not abandon them. It is a
moral and ethical imperative.”
The new funds are expected to serve tens
of thousands of survivors in Israel and allow some 6,000 of them to continue
receiving the nursing aid.
The coalition agreement also stated that the
budget could be further expanded during the next five years according to the
foundation’s needs.
“I am proud to be part of a party that established
the issue of treatment of Holocaust survivors as one of its main goals,” Kariv
said following Friday afternoon’s signing, “We are committed as a society to do
everything we can to provide survivors with the best conditions we can give
them.”
The Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel
called the initiative an “important achievement” for the 200,000 Holocaust
survivors living here.
“We welcome and appreciate the efforts of Yair
Lapid’s party Yesh Atid to include the treatment of Holocaust survivors as part
of the burning issues that the new government faces,” Ronnie Kalinsky, CEO of
the foundation, said on Sunday.
“We hope that the important issue of
treatment of Holocaust survivors will remain on the public agenda throughout the
year, not just for Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
Kalinsky also added that
he hopes the Finance Ministry will keep the budgetary promises and consider
canceling the cuts.