Knesset Bill Seeks To Significantly Subsidize Burial Plots For Holocaust Survivors In Israel

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A new Knesset bill submitted by MK Erez Malul (Shas) seeks to provide a significant discount to Holocaust survivors seeking to purchase burial plots in Israel.

The new bill proposes that the price for a burial plot for Holocaust survivors will not exceed 50% of the price paid by people who are not survivors. The Religious Affairs Ministry, which is responsible for the various Chevra Kadisha organizations in Israel welcomed the proposal. Minister Michael Malkieli says that the proposal is an important message during the period when we mark the remembrance of the Holocaust.

The bill states that “A Knesset research center report states that there are currently 150,600 Holocaust survivors in Israel, whose average age is 87.5 years old. A quarter of the Holocaust survivors live under the poverty line and 80% of them are forced to relinquish services and items which they require due to economic difficulties. A discount on burial plots will be of significant assistance in enabling them to be buried where they choose.”

The bill added that this would have symbolic value in recognizing the contribution of the Holocaust survivors to Israel’s growth and prosperity.

MK Erez Malul said that ” we need to do everything to honor the memory of the Holocaust victims and to care for the welfare and honor of those survivors who are still alive among us. The survivors are among the founders of the state and their contribution to its success is immeasurably great.”

Colette Avital, head of the Holocaust Survivor’s associations in Israel said that she was happy to hear of the bill, adding that “the Holocaust survivors are paragons of Israeli society and it is the state’s obligation to revere their actions and to support them in every possible way in order to ensure their economic future in the years left for them to live.”