By Xinhua
Jerusalem : Israel’s Knesset (parliament)Speaker Dalia Itzik Monday apologized to Holocaust survivors for neglecting their conditions, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
During a special Knesset session, Itzik apologized to Holocaust survivors on behalf of the Jewish state for neglecting their needs over the past few decades.
“Israel demanded reparation funds from Germany, but did not allocate them in a just and logical manner to those who needed them,” Itzik was quoted as saying.
“We are here to rectify the situation so that we may be able to look into the survivors’ eyes, and tell them on behalf of Israeli society, ‘We apologize’,” she said.
The apology came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reached a partial agreement with representatives of Holocaust survivors in Israel to significantly increase stipends for needy survivors.
Under the accord, 1,200 new Israeli shekels (about 283 U.S. dollars) per month will be paid to everyone living in Israel who survived the Nazis’ ghettos and camps and who is not receiving a monthly allowance other than a National Insurance Institute pension.
The new stipend, which will be paid to 8,500 survivors, represents a significant increase from the government’s previous offer two months ago.
But the parties failed to agree on benefits for 85,000 people living in Israel who fled the Nazi regime but were never incarcerated in ghettos or in Nazi camps, with the premier pushing off the issue until at least next month.
These survivors, dubbed “the second circle”, are predominantly people who immigrated from the former Soviet Union over the last two decades.