MK Shuli Mualem
MK Shuli MualemFlash 90

The Knesset plenum approved in a second and third reading a bill submitted by Jewish Home faction leader MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli, which seeks to prevent discrimination against certain kinds of bereaved families.

Currently, the families of victims of hostilities are entitled to receive royalties from the National Insurance Institute under the Compensation Law for Victims of Hostile Acts and also the deceased's pension pension. However, when it comes to casualties with budgetary pensions such as civil servants and IDF officers, families must choose between the right to receive the pension funds or benefits from the National Insurance Institute.

The most prominent example of this gap is the families of the victims of the Carmel forest fire. Some of the victims had cumulative pensions and some had budgetary pensions. Although all the families share the pain of losing loved ones to the flames, they are not entitled to the same compensation conditions. Some of the families are entitled to an annuity from the National Insurance Institute and are entitled to the accumulated pension funds. In contrast, families of people with budgetary pensions have to choose between the two.

Similarly, there are other cases of government employees with budgetary pensions who were murdered in terror attacks and whose families are in the same situation as the family of Yaakov Don, who was murdered in a shooting attack in Gush Etzion about a year and a half ago.

MK Moallem-Refaeli explained that the new law corrected an injustice. "Bereaved families whose loved ones were murdered in terrorist acts during their service in the civil service shoul not have to deal with endless bureaucracies. The state's demand that the bereaved families choose between eligibility for a budgetary pension and a pension under the Compensation for Victims of Hostilities Law is discrimination The Knesset voted today in its second and third readings on the bill that I promoted and decided to abolish the discrimination that has been applied so far, so we treat all those whose devotion to the State of Israel is equal."