CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - With 87 percent of elderly Israeli Holocaust survivors living in poverty, the Cabinet's decision this week to postpone the implementation of the Dorner Commission's recommendations is shameful.

The Dorner Commission -- a state commission led by former High Court Justice Dahlia Dorner, evaluating the government's treatment of Holocaust survivors -- recommended that 43,000 of the nation's oldest and neediest survivors, who immigrated to Israel before 1953, needed an additional monthly stipend of 800 shekels ($228).

According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the Commission reduced the monthly stipend so payment would not be delayed, especially because the average age of this group is 84.

By postponing the payment and delaying further discussion until 2009, the Cabinet effectively denied much-needed help to thousands of elderly Holocaust survivors.

Several months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told survivors that "we have sinned" against you, but two days ago his Cabinet voted to postpone the small monthly stipend that would provide some relief for these elderly poor.

The government would have had to allocate approximately 260 million shekels (approximately $74,000,000) to implement the Dorner Commission's recommendations for this particular group of survivors, but in the end, they chose to do nothing.

Source: Haaretz