Jaunt For Israeli Parliament Members, With A Sour Tang

On 27.01.2014 an impressive large delegation of Israeli ministers and other Israeli members of parliament (Knesset) will fly with two specially chartered airplanes to Poland for the attending of the International Remembrance Day of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps.

Without any doubt, this is an important event from a historical and educational perspective, which should be covered by the media and attended by representatives of the Israeli government and Israel’s president, Mr. Peres, but why spend close to 1 million shekels for this “jaunt” for almost 300 people? OK, some of the money comes from fundraising, especially collected for this goal and only (!) close to 70 parliament members and a large number of ministers (over half the Knesset) will travel, but still…

Why pretend by attending this Remembrance Day that the Israeli government “cares deeply” for the survivors and wants to remember this horrible period, while on the other hand that same government refuses to allocate additional funds for the few survivors left at home (Israel)?

For years the Holocaust survivors in Israel need to prove their personal suffering and loss in order to receive a small pension which is far smaller than many other Holocaust survivors living outside of Israel receive from e.g., the German government as compensation. They struggle on a daily basis to survive; to pay their bills and enjoy their well-deserved Golden Years.

So, why not reduce the number of attendees for this event and reallocate the “saved” money to the survivors still alive in Israel?

It is our and the Israeli government’s commitment to pamper this generation for the rest of their few remaining years they still have to live.

So much was taken from them then, let’s give them money and dignity when we still can. It is not (yet) too late!

 

Read additional blogs from Arielle Adler on: http://arielleadler.wordpress.com/, www.adlerarielle.blogspot.co.il