Bar Mitzvah for Orphans
Bar Mitzvah for OrphansArutz Sheva

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved Sunday a bill that enlarges the compensation to 225 orphans of IDF reservists killed in action before 1999, to a level equal to that given to other IDF war orphans.

The bill was proposed by MKs Chaim Katz (Likud), Moshe Matalon (Yisrael Beitenu) and Aryeh Eldad (National Union). It seals a loophole that allowed the Defense Ministry to pay reduced compensation to orphans whose fathers were reservists who were killed before January 1, 1999.

A law passed in 2002 provided for monthly payments to the families of reservists who were killed from 1999 onward. A later amendment added compensation to the parents and widows of soldiers killed before 1999. While the compensation paid to the widows could also be seen as going to their children, war orphans whose mother had also died were left out of the list of those eligible for the compensation.

The new bill adds these orphans to the eligibility list. They will receive 350,000 shekels in a single payment as well as monthly payments, identical to those received by orphans whose fathers were killed from 1999 onward.