MK Colette Avital (Labor), who heads the Knesset Lobby for Holocaust Survivors, reacted with anger on Monday to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s offer to allocate $155 million to elderly Holocaust survivors over the course of the next three years.  Avital accused Olmert of “mocking the destitute” and “throwing sand in the eyes of” survivors.

“How does the Prime Minister intend to solve the problems of 120,000 survivors,” Avital asked, “when the sum allocated for 2008 is only 130 million shekels?  Will 1,000 shekels per person per year solve the distress, the hunger, the need for medicines and nursing aid?”  Avital also criticized Olmert’s plan to increase the amount of aid each year, pointing out that the number of Holocaust survivors decreases every day.