Representatives of Israel's 250,000 Holocaust survivors are to demand more state support in a protest outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's house. A government offer of a monthly stipend of $20 (£10) was rejected as too little by survivor groups, and they vowed to go ahead with the Jerusalem action. Many elderly survivors say they struggle to pay for medical treatment and, in some cases, food. Mr Olmert called for a "fair and balanced" solution as his cabinet met. He pointed out that his government was the first to take up the issue of providing for Holocaust survivors' families with special aid.
Dubi Arbel, director of one of the survivor organisations, told the BBC that their needs were not being met. "They wake up every night with nightmares," he said. "They have cancer 14 times more than the regular population. They break their bones due to the malnutrition they had years ago. And now when they need the help, there is nobody to turn to."
The protesters are calling their protest a "March of the Living" - a name which echoes the annual march at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day - and some are expected to don prisoners' clothes and yellow stars. One Israeli cabinet minister, Yitzhak Herzog, said the use of such imagery on a march over a financial dispute with the government was "an insult to the collective memory of the Holocaust".
Holocaust survivors - who include all those who suffered from Nazi persecution - already receive support from a number of sources, including Germany and the Israeli government. But they have long complained of neglect in Israel, where some 250,000 live. Many of the elderly survivors say they struggle to pay for medical treatment and, in some cases, food. Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War II. The Holocaust is often cited as one of the key reasons as to why a Jewish state must exist. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6931812.stm
Dubi Arbel, director of one of the survivor organisations, told the BBC that their needs were not being met. "They wake up every night with nightmares," he said. "They have cancer 14 times more than the regular population. They break their bones due to the malnutrition they had years ago. And now when they need the help, there is nobody to turn to."
The protesters are calling their protest a "March of the Living" - a name which echoes the annual march at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day - and some are expected to don prisoners' clothes and yellow stars. One Israeli cabinet minister, Yitzhak Herzog, said the use of such imagery on a march over a financial dispute with the government was "an insult to the collective memory of the Holocaust".
Holocaust survivors - who include all those who suffered from Nazi persecution - already receive support from a number of sources, including Germany and the Israeli government. But they have long complained of neglect in Israel, where some 250,000 live. Many of the elderly survivors say they struggle to pay for medical treatment and, in some cases, food. Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War II. The Holocaust is often cited as one of the key reasons as to why a Jewish state must exist. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6931812.stm