Officials announced today that pension checks have been handed for the first time to 600 residents of East Jerusalem from the Institute of National Insurance. The residents had waited five years–since the Six-Day War–to become eligible for old-age pensions. Such pensions are payable to Israeli residents who have worked for at least five years before becoming 65 and must have paid premiums during those working years. The average monthly pensions amount to about $40. Old-age pensions were not available to East Jerusalem residents during the period of Jordanian control and residents who retired from work before the Six-Day War are not eligible but they can get support from the Jerusalem municipal welfare department, if they qualify.
Yosef Almogi, Israel’s Labor Minister, explained at the initial presentation of the pension checks that since the East Jerusalem residents had been Israeli citizens since 1967, they now qualified for pensions under Israel’s national insurance law. The residents received their checks at the branch office of the National Insurance Institute.
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