And if so, if the Holocaust was so vital to the creation of Israel, why are they TREATING the SURVIVORS like SHIT?!
Because maybe it NEVER HAPPENED?
"Holocaust survivors criticize stipends; Israel offers raise of $20 per month" by Ben Hubbard/Associated Press August 6, 2007
JERUSALEM -- Holocaust survivors in Israel demanded yesterday that the Jewish state raise what they consider a laughable new offer of an extra monthly stipend of $20.
At least 500 elderly survivors and their supporters rallied outside the Parliament building, carrying placards and wearing stickers reading "The Holocaust is still here" and "Forgive us for surviving."
"The government of Israel has not recognized us. We don't belong to them," said Josef Charney, 82, who survived the Treblinka death camp.
Six decades after World War II and the Nazi killings of 6 million Jews, about 240,000 Holocaust survivors live in Israel. Many have long complained that instead of spending their final years in dignity, they lack money for basics, sometimes even food. Some have said European countries treat them far better than Israel.
Last week, the government announced $28 million in new stipends for 120,000 needy survivors -- about half now in Israel. That works out to just 83 shekels -- or $20 -- a month for each survivor. Already existing benefits for survivors depend on factors such as country of origin, and come on top of state pensions and government health care available to all Israelis.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the $20 supplement was a stopgap while the needs of the survivors are carefully analyzed, but many have deemed the measure an insult.
"We don't think that 83 shekels a month is enough," said Gal Rotem of the Holocaust Survivors' Welfare Fund, which helped organize the march. "You can't buy food or drugs or anything else with 83 shekels."
She noted the group was not growing, saying an average of 35 survivors die each day in Israel.
At yesterday's weekly Cabinet meeting, Olmert said the issue was "sensitive and painful" and acknowledged that previous governments had failed to address it. He said he would meet Wednesday with survivors' groups and government ministries to find the "best, fairest, and most just solution," according to a statement from his office.
The protesters, however, doubted the government would act quickly.
"Until they say what the solution is, we won't believe anything else," Rotem said. "It's not a good feeling that Holocaust survivors have to walk and march to say to Olmert that they are still alive and need help."
As the marchers listened to speeches by survivors, Sari Rivkin of Jerusalem leaned on a sign with three black-and-white photos of Holocaust survivors. As the head of an Israeli nonprofit, she said she had seen survivors have to choose between buying food or medicine.
"The government's response is to delay as long as possible, hoping the problem will go away," she said. "Unfortunately, these people are going away. They are dying every day."
"Holocaust Survivors Protest Size of Payments Planned by Israel" By STEVEN ERLANGER
JERUSALEM, Aug. 5 — Several dozen Israeli survivors of the Holocaust, supported by hundreds of younger relatives and supporters, marched in protest on Sunday in front of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office, saying that a planned government stipend was too small, insulting both the living and the dead.
Carrying signs that said, “Let us live in dignity,” the demonstrators demanded that Mr. Olmert issue a formal statement revoking a government decision to provide a monthly stipend next year of 83 shekels, about $20, to the country’s Holocaust survivors.
A few wore yellow Stars of David, reminiscent of the ones the Nazis forced Jews to wear; many wore black T-shirts with the words in yellow: “The Holocaust is still with us — the survivors.”
Shmulik Reinisch, one of the protesters and a Holocaust survivor, said, “The heart shrivels that this demonstration is needed for the state to give out the money we deserve.” He said that the government’s decisions were painful, adding, “We want to return to our anonymity and we want to die in dignity.”
Mr. Olmert has already said that the government will review the decision and that he will meet Wednesday with survivor representatives to consider how to divide the money available, perhaps with a needs test.
He told the Israeli cabinet on Sunday that the topic was volatile and delicate. “Those who send to the newspapers a picture of a woman in camp pajamas, wearing a yellow patch, drag the discussion down to an unacceptable level, and these pictures will not dictate the government’s action,” he said.
[What in the world is Olmert TALKING ABOUT?
Discussion at an "unacceptable level?"
WTF? He DISRESPECTS the survivors MORE THAN I DO!
He is supposed to BELIEVE!
Is it possible, in fact, that Olmert also KNOWS the TRUTH, and these folks are IRRITATING HIM?
The MORE LIGHT shined on the LIES of HISTORY (since 9/11 and Iraq, reader, I have come to DOUBT EVERYTHING)!
We have been told LIES FOREVER, folks, so WAKE UP!]
The social welfare minister, Isaac Herzog, said that the emotive march, “all in the name of a financial dispute with the government, is an insult to the collective memory of the Holocaust.”
The government says that there are about 240,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel, and that about 120,000 of them are living at or near the poverty level.
An earlier estimate of 80,000 at or near the poverty level did not include those from the former Soviet Union who fled their homes to escape the Nazis. The revised larger figure is considered a political gesture to Russian-speaking voters, but it dilutes the roughly $29 million the government says it can spend in 2008.
Part of the criticism is that, under the government’s plan, the amount of the stipend would double in 2009 and go up again in 2011, when more of the survivors are likely to have died."
Excuse for saying CHEAP, FUCKING JEWS!
What a bunch of ZIONIST MONSTERS!
And these are the people who SUFFERED so YOU COULD HAVE a SHITSTINK STATE!
Or did they?
