Arab List lawmakers push through bill to help Holocaust survivors

A bill increasing the financial benefits for some Holocaust survivors by hundreds of shekels a month, sponsored by three lawmakers from the Joint (Arab) List, became the first law passed in the Knesset’s winter session Tuesday.

The bill was sponsored by Joint (Arab) List head Ayman Odeh, and party colleagues Dov Khenin and Abdullah Abu Maaruf, as well as MK Tali Ploskov (Kulanu).

Seventy MKs voted in favor of the bill with no objections.

The legislation cancels a previous adjustment in law from 2014 that caused a monthly payment from Germany to some Holocaust survivors in Israel to be considered as income, reducing from the amount they were paid by the state’s National Insurance Institute.

The bill will help survivors who moved to Israel after 1953 and who are paid NIS 1,350 ($354) a month by the German government. Israeli law stipulates that Holocaust survivors should receive at least NIS 2,200 ($578) a month from the state but those receiving the German stipend saw it swiped from the state benefit because it was seen as income.

As a result of the change in law, those survivors can now expect to receive the full monthly sum from the state, applied retroactively from the beginning of September.

“This is a wrong that needed to be corrected, that impacted Holocaust survivors and therefore it is important and fitting to correct it,” Khenin said. “I hope that in this way step by step we will progress towards correcting the wrongs and faults that remain.”

Odeh told The Times of Israel he was proud to have been involved in pushing the measure through,.

“I had the privilege to be part of the initiative for this important bill, which corrects an ongoing wrong against the Holocaust survivors,” he said in a statement. “I am especially proud that we managed to assist in that the Holocaust survivors who are still with us can live decently.”