An official audit accused successive Israeli governments of neglecting needy Holocaust survivors.
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss issued a report Wednesday in which he blasted the Olmert government and its predecessors for not attending better to Holocaust survivors in Israel who rely on state subsidies.
“It is unconscionable that bureaucratic obstacles hinder the treatment of these survivors, who passed through the seven gates of hell in the Holocaust waged on the Jewish People in Europe and other countries,” Lindenstrauss wrote.
According to the report, 107,000 of some 250,000 survivors in Israel receive state aid ranging from $240 to $1,390 a month.
A recent government plan to boost subsidies by $20 a month triggered mass protests. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to come up with a more satisfactory arrangement this month.
