Israel gov't under fire for Holocaust survivor aid

JERUSALEM, Aug 15 (Reuters) Israel's chief auditor today accused Israel's governments, past and present, of withholding and delaying financial support for survivors of the Nazi Holocaust living in the Jewish State.

The report blames the Finance Ministry for delaying money given to a special survivors' fund and limiting the amount of money allocated by the state to assistance organisations.

''The actions of state authorities towards the survivors have been characterised mostly by unnecessary delays, postponements and 'foot dragging' that do not reflect the substance of legal arrangements,'' Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss said in the report.

According to the report, only 107,000 of the 250,000 survivors in Israel of the Nazi Holocaust, some of whom live in poverty and are unable to pay for their basic living needs, receive state aid, ranging between 240 and 1,390 dollar per month.

More than half the aid comes from reparations from Germany and other countries and through the Claims Committee, an organisation responsible for facilitating claims of survivors from European governments.

Lindenstrauss said he would not tolerate ''bureaucratic obstacles'' standing in the way of helping survivors who ''passed through the seven gates of hell in the Holocaust''.

Rafi Eitan, Israel's minister of pensioners' affairs, said the government was trying to solve persistent bureaucratic problems quickly and believed that ''the most needy survivors will get help in full''.

In recent weeks, survivors in Israel have stepped up a public campaign for more state assistance, holding a protest that drew a crowd of thousands outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office.

REUTERS SLD KN1819