Yom Hashoah occasions protests for survivor's rights, Darfur refugees
Haaretz reports,
Hundreds of Holocaust survivors, students and members of youth movements gathered Monday in front of the Knesset to protest against Israel’s neglect of Holocaust survivors, many of whom are in a dire financial situation.
The rally came as Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday with memorials at the Knesset and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority.
[…] A representative of the treasury told a special Knesset hearing concerning survivors’ financial situation on Sunday that some 180,000 Israeli Holocaust survivors do not receive any form of assistance from the state.
[…] “Israel has a moral and financial obligation to the survivors, and time in this particular case is of the essence,” [Welfare Minister Isaac] Herzog said. He added that the “dire condition of the survivors casts a shadow on Israeli society.”
In related news, ynet reports,
Several members of the Meretz Youth movement protested outside the Interior Ministry in Jerusalem Monday evening against what they said was Israel’s unfair treatment of refugees from Darfur.
The demonstrators, who purposely chose Holocaust Memorial Day to voice their protest, said Israel should be the first to welcome the refugees.
“On a day when the country unites in the memory of the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust, we say that Israel must keep its doors open to the Darfur refugees, despite the fact that we have no diplomatic relations with Sudan,” Meretz Youth chairman Uri Zacki told Ynet.
The plight of Holocaust survivors in Israel also got a write up in the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/world/middleeast/17briefs-holocaust.html
Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, a Holocaust survivor himself, also spoke out about the world’s (lack of a) reaction to Darfur at the Yad Vashem Yom Hashoa memorial on Sunday evening. Here is an article from Haaretz.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/848738.html