Following the personal intervention of Knesset Finance Committee Chairman Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), who met with the Dutch ambassador to Israel, the director of the Holocaust Survivors Rights Authority, Ofra Ross, announced during the committee’s meeting on Sunday that the Dutch government had reversed its earlier decision and announced it would continue to make monthly reparation payments to all Dutch Holocaust survivors.
Last month, Holland announced it would stop making such payments to former citizens of the Netherlands who were also getting payments from the Israeli government, citing Dutch law that forbids the payment of double allowances.
Gafni praised the Dutch government and Holland’s ambassador to Israel Gilles Beschoor Plug, for “making the right decision, recognizing the importance of the payments to the survivors and for not letting bureaucracy interfere with practical and moral considerations.”
Ross, who said some 600 Holocaust survivors living in Israel would have lost their allowances had the Dutch government not reversed its decision, had contacted Dutch officials on behalf of the Finance Committee and the Israeli government in order to resolve the matter.
Avraham Roet, a Dutch survivor and a member of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, thanked Gafni and Ross for their quick action that resulted in no payments being delayed.